A few months ago I participated in a school activity called "Chalk the Block", in which students with some artistic talent create a chalk painting on a chalk tile cement. I teamed up with two girls I didn't know very well and designed a piece that represented my imagination and expressed my emotions in colorful patterns of surreal paraphernalia. That morning I went into the art room to gather all the materials I needed. I arrived early that morning to be able to better organize the materials. I had already polished the blocks and washed the brushes when the room began to fill with students rushing to get whatever tools they could scavenge. I wondered how they could expect to gather all the materials they would need when they hadn't been responsible enough to arrive in a timely manner; then I realized that there was still no sign of any of my companions. I calmly went down the stairs, arranged the supplies on the tiles, took a spatula and began to scrape the dark gum stains, which had accumulated over years of student work. ignorance at...