Because our own culture discourages imitation, American children aren’t granted similar opportunities to show how competent they can be; they also lack exposure to inspiring examples, or “models,” of the kind of work that kids their age are capable of producing. For decades, educator Ron Berger towed around a rolling suitcase filled with hundreds of such models: sketches, poems, and essays created by children, which he would pull out and share with teachers and students at schools around the country.
