Photo: WP

Check it out, Working Families Party: Even children grasp that it's wrong to blame AIG's current financial-products executives when it's mostly people who are no longer at the company that screwed everything up. Today's Washington Post tells us about a fourth-grade teacher in Texas who taught her students a lesson by first getting them "all riled up" about AIG's retention bonuses and then turning the tables on them.

At first they were pissed off about the company using bailout funds to pay their employees. But then they thought about it for a second.

"What if you were an AIG employee?" she asked. Imagine if you had not been involved in the deals that ruined the company but were left to clean up the mess. What if you had to pay back money you felt you had earned? What if your family had received death threats?

One boy raised his hand.

"Can we write them and let them know that it's going to be okay?" asked the boy, who clearly doesn't have a 401(k).

And then they did.

The children adorned their messages with peace symbols and smiley faces, rainbows and vivid red hearts. "Hi AIG. Not all of USA hates you," wrote one student. "We know you're not villains," wrote another. "Keep working hard, dudes! Keep eating your vegatabos!" advised a third.

The message they sent to Joe Cassano, however, was unprintable.

The ABCs of Compassion [WP]