For the last two years, I have volunteered in my son’s kindergarden and first grade classes at JY Joyner Elementary in Raleigh, NC. I have watched as he and his classmates have painstakingly learned how to write their names and then write increasingly more complex ideas. Repeatedly, I have been struck by their openness and honesty. To try to capture that, I visited and, with their teachers’ help, asked students “If you had one wish for the world, your family or yourself, what would it be?”  I distributed card stock and black pens and asked them to write their answers big so that we could all read their wise words. The teachers helped with spelling. I then tacked a black cloth to the classroom wall, set a stool in front of it and asked each child to hold their sign as I photographed them. I told them they could look at the camera in whatever way they felt.