As a former middle school art teacher in Chesterfield County, Va. I have seen this project in our school and can see both sides of the aisle. So many adults think that children are embarrassed by their lineage or lack of lineage - or that they shouldn't have to discuss it - if a child truly feels that way I know no teacher who would make a child discuss something that would embarrass him/her. In my classes children talked openly about their adoption, divorce of their parents, illnesses and death, and many other topics just as normal conversation when they were working on projects. Many times I would join in one these discussions and we have discussed genealogy - as that was an interest of mine. As those of you with children in today's world are aware .... they know more than we ever did at their ages -- about almost any topic. I believe that the best way our children develop and learn to live with problems/worries is to be able to discuss them. The children with the most problems appear to be those who cannot discuss their problems "truthfully" with others and it eats at them - eventually showing up in some other form, behavior problems, etc.! Most of today's children are much more tolerant and caring of each others differences than earlier generations or than we adults give them credit for - possibly because they share of themselves more than we did. One of the most genuinly touching experiences that I had was discussing lineage with our head custodian, a gentlemanly black man. He said that they could trace their family back to the slave family on an early North Carolina farm. He said he wished he could go farther but that there were no records at which to look but they have family reunions every summer including all of the relatives of this former slave. The children understand this story and look at him with wonder ...... not because they felt sorry for him but because all of those people come from such great distances to celebrate what they have - not what they are missing. Maybe we should take note.