Within the first week of opening the 2005 school year at Thomasville Primary School in Thomasville, North Carolina, kindergarteners were learning about managing their impulsivity and were able to articulate in complete sentences what that meant. One young child said that managing impulsivity meant "not taking other students' books and materials, not touching them when they are working, not taking their snacks, and not interrupting them when they are talking." The teacher asked her "why managing her impulsivity was important," and she said, "It will hurt their learning."

In spring 2006 at this same school, 1st and 2nd graders were debating which of the two Renaissance painters, Leonardo or Michelangelo, was more persistent with completing his work and which one was the most creative. The two debaters and the moderator had furnished their own costumes for the debate and were serious about the task at hand. Their classmates, at the end of the debate, asked provocative questions of the two debaters and a lively discussion was evident. Each audience member used a rubric to evaluate which debater made the most points. At the end of this activity, students were in learning style centers practicing the theories and techniques that Leonardo and Michelangelo developed and are now considered to be indicative of Renaissance paintings. The students were studying pulleys, measurements, painting techniques, and da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man," all relating to the curriculum unit.