People can learn as much from what they do not do right as what they do. This article describes such a failure. The author had gathered six students together for an interview concerning art and their lives--and things became so chaotic, he thought it was all a wash... until he went back and listened to the tape. Only then did he realize that what he got--a deeper understanding of what makes kids tick--was what he was after all along. He was able to listen in on the joys and frustrations of how they talk to each other every day. To hear the way art broke that pattern and allowed a side of them, even the least attentive of them, to flourish in a whole new way.