msh+Trying+to+protect+his+students'+innocence

This poem basically gives a lot of examples how a history teacher tries to protect his students' innocence. He makes everything that happened in history seem a lot smaller by not telling the students the truth. In the second to last paragraph the author tells what the students do after class:

"The children would leave his classroom for the playground to torment the weak and the smart, mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,"

This is the exact thing the teacher tries to prevent the students from doing. The author makes a statement, that the student's innocence really is not something you should try to protect, but you should rather teach them what has happened back in history. This would help them to think about their actions and change their behavior. This poem again relates to school, because most of the poem happens in a history class and it relates to methods of teaching.