A Child's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play (Paley, 1991)

"This irresistible book is Vivian Gussin Paley at her very best.... Paley's defence of fantasy play is fuelled by urgency and a passionate interest in children and everything they do.... [A Child's Work also includes] story after powerful story from Paley's magnificent anthology of the imagination, all collected from 'natural born storytellers who create their own dramatic literature.' The case she makes is convincing because, in generous moves of self-analysis, she shows us her own learning, her own coming to understand." - Mary Jane Drummond, Times Education Supplement; "America's children have in Vivian Gussin Paley an extraordinarily knowing and thoughtful observer - indeed, a resourceful teacher who has so much to tell us about how our country's young people live, learn, grow, in mind, heart and spirit. Here is a book brimming with brave wisdom that will help us parents and teachers understand how our sons and daughters, our students come to terms with life through their minds' activity." - Robert Coles author of The Moral Intelligence of Children; "Paley does children a great service by reminding us of the enormous value of fantasy play." - San Francisco Ghronicle Book Review"

Product Description

The buzz word in education today is accountability. But the federal mandate of "no child left behind" has come to mean curriculums driven by preparation for standardized tests and quantifiable learning results. Even for very young children, unstructured creative time in the classroom is waning as teachers and administrators are under growing pressures to measure school readiness through rote learning and increased homework. In her new book, Vivian Gussin Paley decries this rapid disappearance of creative time and makes the case for the critical role of fantasy play in the psychological, intellectual, and social development of young children.

A Child's Work goes inside classrooms around the globe to explore the stunningly original language of children in their role-playing and storytelling. Drawing from their own words, Paley examines how this natural mode of learning allows children to construct meaning in their worlds, meaning that carries through into their adult lives. Proof that play is the work of children, this compelling and enchanting book will inspire and instruct teachers and parents as well as point to a fundamental misdirection in today's educational programs and strategies.

p.1 Miss Wilson had told us, "You are watching the only age group in school that is always busy making up its own work assignments. It looks and sounds like play, yet we properly call this play the work of children..."

p.2,3 "Pretend you are the children who are playing," she said. "What are you trying to accomplish and what stands in your way? Act out what you've seen and fill in the blanks. Remind yourselves of what it was like to be a child."

In time we discovered that play was indeed work... Oddly enough, the hardest part of the play for us to reproduce or invent were the fantasies themselves... it took us a great deal of practice to do what was, well, child's play in the nursery... We have forgotten what it is like to be a child.

p.7 What an astonishing invention is this activity we call fantasy play.

p.8 There is no activity for which young children are better prepared than fantasy play... fantasy play is the glue that binds together all other pursuits

p.26 Children are intoxicated by the seemingly endless supply of plots available just for the thinking... Fantasy play, rather than being a distraction, helps children achieve the goal of having an open mind, whether in the service of further storytelling or in formal lessons.

p.102 Every day brought me new evidence of the preeminence of fantasy in children's thinking.

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