The film shows seasoned, skilled and sometimes frustrated teachers tackling the hard task of teaching uninspired students. The 6th, 7th and 8th grade classrooms of the Betty Shabazz School for the Performing Arts (PS/IS 298) shows many of the struggles faced by schools in the New York City education system. The film allows the audience to see the grounded approach to learning that program founder Stephen A. Wilson, Jr. and his group of teaching artists use to work with children on a curriculum that includes theater, visual arts and dance. As the camera follows and focuses on several of the students in the classroom, their beauty as repressed children comes out in their artwork. Students recreate traditional Native American Kachina dolls, African masks and rehearse dance moves. The audience experiences what it is like to be in the classroom with scenes that include one-on-one interviews and fly-on-the-wall perspectives. In many ways, the documentary provides an intimate experience of how teachers and students interact in the classroom with each other and interact with themselves.