She doesn’t know it yet, but the cubby space Hanna shares with 6-year-old Chris is a lesson that will follow her through life. For now though, it’s nothing more than a place where she stores her ...

We sit at a tiny desk in small, blue-plastic molded chairs, and she tells me what she’s learned in first grade. Lesson Number One: First grade is hard. Harder than expected. At night, when she would ...