Smart Cookies.(The Talk of the Town)(educating kindergartners)

It is sometimes suggested that schools no longer teach children values, but this assertion would not be true of P.S. 321, in Park Slope, which has been offering an "Ad-Busters" class as an after-school program, intended to impart radical skepticism to kindergartners. The class is taught by Susan Gregory Thomas, a P.S. 321 parent and the author of "Buy, Buy Baby," a soon-to-be-published expose of the depredations of kiddie consumer culture. One recent very cold Friday, Thomas's charges were crowded around a lunch table in the cafeteria in advance of a field trip to Key Food.

"Who goes shopping with their parents?" Thomas, who has brown curly hair and was wearing a pastel-colored jacket trimmed with fake fur, asked.

Walter, whose lips bore faint traces of blue that might have been caused by food coloring (unlikely) or marker pen (probable), said, "I sometimes go to Met Foods, or D'Agostino's."

Ishai, who was eating a bag of Pirate's Booty, said, "I go to the Food Co-op." Thomas asked if Pirate's Booty was healthy. "It's snacky," Ishai said.

"How do we know when something is healthy?" Thomas asked.

"From reading the nutrients list," Ishai said.

"I can't read," Walter said, pulling on a fleece hat.