The story opens with the previous teacher leaving the classroom, having been removed from her position and replaced with an agent of the foreign power.

The new teacher has been trained in propaganda techniques and is responsible for re-educating the children to be supportive of their occupiers.

Framing the story is the fact that, while the children ritually recite a "Pledge of Allegiance" every morning, none know what it actually means.

Addressed broadly, lacking the meaning of any word can lead anyone – child or adult – to the malleable state in which we see the children as the story draws to a close.

[2] Only one student is initially hostile to the new teacher, a child named Johnny, whose father had been arrested and placed in a re-education camp.

Perhaps you can — then your children will...The short story was adapted in 1982 as an installment in the anthology TV series Mobil Showcase.

She replaces an old teacher (Mildred Dunnock in her penultimate performance), who disappears after the students witness her crying.