The ABCs of Compassion

Brady Dennis: Rebecca Chapman teaches a daily economics lesson to her fourth-graders at a public elementary school near Houston. She assigns them jobs — pencil guard, errand runner, class sheriff. She lets them run small businesses — cubby cleaning, baked goods — and make purchases with fake money. She even taxes the profits.

On March 25, the lesson was a little different. She turned that day to the issue that had captivated and infuriated Americans: the millions in retention bonuses paid to employees at AIG Financial Products, the unit whose risky deals had wrecked giant insurer American International Group.