Learning To Care

By Debra Viadero

Louisville, Ky.

Heather and Larry, two upper-elementary students at Hazelwood Elementary School, are at the age when boys and girls don't pal around together. Today, though, both are working busily on a Venn diagram that shows how they are alike and how they are different.

One circle is labeled "Heather" and the other "Larry." In the outer edges of those circles, the classmates have scribbled a few of their individual preferences. Heather has written that she likes cats. Larry's tastes run to sports. But the space where the circles intersect is crowded with entries--swimming, rap music, hot dogs, snakes, pizza, school, and the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" television program. There is no...