Justin ¹ (age 11) was lying still on the rug, surrounded by several children and
an adult kneeling beside him peering at his bare stomach (his shirt had been
hiked up to his neck). Len, the adult learning director, was holding a
cylindrical piece of paper upright above Justin's belly button. Caught by the
scene and the children's rapt attention, I asked what was happening. "We're
performing an operation," they told me, "the surgical removal of immaturity."

Later that day, Justin and Len performed a commercial break during a
circus scene created by Alice (age 8) and Julia, another learning director.
Len and Justin entered the stage walking. Len said, "Justin, you won't be
going to your speech therapist today." Justin stopped in his tracks, yelled,
cried, and fell to the ground in a screaming temper tantrum. Len looked up
at the audience for a moment, took some wads of paper out of the manila
envelope he was holding and said, while he arched them toward Justin's
mouth, "The miracle cure--'Matchore Partz' [Mature Parts]." Justin "swal-
lowed the pills." He stood up and he and Len began the scene again. Len:
"Justin, you won't be going to your speech therapist today." Justin looked up
at him and calmly said, "Oh well, I guess I'll go home then." The audience
applauded.

For years, Justin had been having temper tantrums in situations similar
to the one improvised in the commercial for "Matchore Partz." Diagnosed
with a variety of specific and general learning disabilities and emotional

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