The theme of the The Children’s Story is children are easily influenced and almost naive to the things that you tell them. While reading the story, I found that the plot started and ended very quickly. In the beginning it said it was two minutes till nine and at the end it was 9:23 exactly. It didn’t even take the “New Teacher” a full half hour to get them to change their minds. In the children’s eyes, the “New Teacher” was the only person that didn’t lie to them so they had every reason to trust her. It was almost like a snowball effect. Once the “New Teacher” got the idea in their brain, they came up with their own ideas to add. Everything they had ever learned, and had been taught was wrong and everything she said was right. She manipulated them into her way of thinking. The biggest turning point in the story was the cutting of the flag because from then on the teacher was able to say anything and they'd believe her.

"If we had some scissors we could cut a little piece off." "I've some scissors at home, Mary said. "There's some in Miss Worden's desk," Brian said. The New teacher found the scissors and then they had to decide who would be allowed to cut a little piece off, and the New Teacher said that because today was Mary's birthday (HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?) Mary asked herself awed. Mary should be allowed to cut the piece off. And then they decided it would be very nice if they all had a piece. The flag is special, they thought, so if you have a piece, that's better than having just to look at it, 'cause you can keep it in your pocket (Clavell).