When I was very young, my sister and I loved to play outside in our tiny, postage-stamp yard in California. One scenario I recall being enacted repeatedly was one I'll call the "damsel in distress."  One of us would dig a hole in the garden (likely me as Kellie has always been dirt-averse), fill it with water from the green garden hose, then stand in it, pretending it was quick sand and we were slowly being sucked in. Cue the screaming and the dramatic save by the sister, who would pull the shrieking damsel to safety.

I'm sure all the old people who were our neighbors *loved it* when we did this.  If they had their hearing aids in, of course.

This story came to mind this morning as I've been reading a book related to a new series of workshops I'm developing for my job. 

A Child's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play by Vivian Gussin Paley.  She's taught kindergarten for 37 years.  This amazing lady has also published 12 books at least.  Yes, she makes me tired.  But this book -- a short 111 pages -- is  brilliant.  She focuses on "fantasy play" or what many call "dramatic play" and carefully builds her case for its central role in the education of young children. In this day and age of smashing the academic curriculum into younger and younger classrooms, she beautifully shows how children create intricate and dynamic plots, build language, work through their fears and concerns, and gain critical social skills . . . all while "playing" in the doll corner or block center. With story after story observed in real classrooms over the course of her career (both hers and those around the world where she has gone to mentor teachers in leveraging play as a teaching strategy), Paley calls adults to peer into the complex world of storytelling carried out by children.

My copy of the book bristles like a hedgehog with colored plastic flags marking passages that resonate.  Entire chapters stand out in my mind, such as one illustrating how storytelling and reenacting a child-dictated story on a pretend stage with classmates as actors engaged an autistic child. He was so tuned in to what was happening that he came to the stage and participated with his peers when  his usual habit was to walk around the room in circles and play under a table by himself.

there is much I would like to say about the loss of play and its impact on children.  Paley is infinitely quotable. It's hard to choose which passage to share, but I will leave you with this brief quote for our joint reflection:

Our fantasy characters became our confidants. We would talk and listen to them and tell their stories at will. They did not mask reality; they helped us interpret and explain our feelings about reality.

What are your memories of play?



A Child's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play