I really doubt an elementary school aged kid can wrap their brain around the psychology/philosophy of hard work and society, unless its a genius kid. Kids operate the same way the majority of animals do. Conditioning and instincts. They have neither a positive or negative thought about it, if they even have have a thought about it unless it is planted by an adult. Kids are pretty black and white about shit. Haven't exactly hit the brain development stage where they realize there may be a gray area.

I'll put 10 on it if you asked any of those kids, their reason isnt 'philosophical/psychological debate on hard work and making a point on how economic and social standing is not a sign of good character' or whatever you were saying. Who do get to sign your yearbook? Friends mostly. What was the janitor being? Nice. Be nice to a kid and he's most likely gonna assume you want to be friends with no ulterior motive (again, unless the kids a genius kid or someone has fucked the kid's ability to trust up before it should be fucked up). I'll put my 10 on the kids thinking the janitors their friend and you get friends to sign your yearbook.

Kids actions, due to this simple way of thinking because that's where brain development is at, can often accidentally make an adult see something the kid had no intention of or probably a thought about. Adults tend to read to much into a kids actions/words. I'm not saying there is nothing to learn from a kid's way of thinking. There is. But its not because of the motivation behind the child's actions/words, which usually are much simpler than an adult may project onto them. Its due to the differences development causes to an adult brain as a human ages from a kid to an adult. This is how you learn from a kid. Figure out how development impacts the brain, then figure out how to shape development to cut out the bad shit that starts to happen. Not by attributing motives, logic and reason to their actions by an adult brain, fully developed, onto a child's brain, who are functionally on a similar level to non-human animal in thinking ability.