We had two stellar musicians in to play Civil War-era bluegrass music for our kids today. I sat in on two tunes– a privilege.

Halfway through a soft, sweet piece on mandolin and banjo, our math teacher taps me on the shoulder and shows me that our two worst-behaved boys, whose home lives are wrecks, who scatter their wound-up energy and baggage through every school day– both these boys had succumbed to the peace of the music, and fallen fast, sound asleep.