Caring+little+for+pictures+or+old+age

"Restless on hard chairs caring little for pictures or old age" (lines 6-7) always sticks out to me when I read this poem because of the incredibly effective imagery it conveys about the school children. It totally gives you this picture of the teacher asking the class of elementary school students the same serious question, if forced to chose between a timeless Rembrandt painting and an old woman with not many years left to live, which would you save? And the kids, clearly preoccupied with thought of going out for recess or heading on home and not being particularly interested in "pictures or old age" in the first place, just coming up with some answer to satisfy the teacher. This is one of my favorite lines in the poem because it's just what you would expect from a class full of younger kids when asked a question as deep as this. In their eyes it seems like it will ever apply to them.