Bad Guys Dont Have Birthdays

Download or read book Bad Guys Don't Have Birthdays written by Vivian Gussin Paley and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-07-26 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bad guys are not allowed to have birthdays, pick blueberries, or disturb the baby. So say the four-year-olds who announce life's risks and dangers as they play out the school year in Vivian Paley's classroom. Their play is filled with warnings. They invent chaos in order to show that everything is under control. They portray fear to prove that it can be conquered. No theme is too large or too small for their intense scrutiny. Fantasy play is their ever dependable pathway to knowledge and certainty. " It . . . takes a special teacher to value the young child's communications sufficiently, enter into a meaningful dialogue with the youngster, and thereby stimulate more productivity without overwhelming the child with her own ideas. Vivian Paley is such a teacher."—Maria W. Piers, in the American Journal of Education "[Mrs. Paley's books] should be required reading wherever children are growing. Mrs. Paley does not presume to understand preschool children, or to theorize. Her strength lies equally in knowing that she does not know and in trying to learn. When she cannot help children—because she can neither anticipate nor follow their thinking—she strives not to hinder them. She avoids the arrogance of adult to small child; of teacher to student; or writer to reader."—Penelope Leach, author of Your Baby & Child in the New York Times Book Review "[Paley's] stories and interpretation argue for a new type of early childhood education . . . a form of teaching that builds upon the considerable knowledge children already have and grapple with daily in fantasy play."—Alex Raskin, Los Angeles Times Book Review "Through the 'intuitive language' of fantasy play, Paley believes, children express their deepest concerns. They act out different roles and invent imaginative scenarios to better understand the real world. Fantasy play helps them cope with uncomfortable feelings. . . . In fantasy, any device may be used to draw safe boundaries."—Ruth J. Moss, Psychology Today

Download or read book Boys and Girls written by Vivian Gussin Paley and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-04-22 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the publication of Boys and Girls in 1984, Vivian Gussin Paley took readers inside a kindergarten classroom to show them how boys and girls play—and how, by playing and fantasizing in different ways, they work through complicated notions of gender roles and identity. The children’s own conversations, stories, playacting, and scuffles are interwoven with Paley’s observations and accounts of her vain attempts to alter their stereotyped play. Thirty years later, the superheroes and princesses are still here, but their doll corners and block areas are fast disappearing from our kindergartens. This new edition of Paley’s classic book reignites issues that are more important than ever for a new generation of students, parents, and teachers.

Download or read book Children in Play, Story, and School written by Artin G?nc? and published by Guilford Press. This book was released on 2001-07-19 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imaginative play and story telling occupy key roles in children's psychological development and socialization. Bringing together leading contributors, this volume explores what play and story mean to young children, and how these vital aspects of development can best be supported in child care and educational settings. Vital connections are drawn between children's activities, their interpersonal relationships, and their emerging cognitive and affective capacities. Topics covered include promoting social play in the classroom, storytelling and literacy development, and the influences of early caregiving experiences on attachment and learning. Theoretical and methodological issues in these areas of research are also addressed, as well as social policy implications. The book is inspired by the work of Greta G. Fein, the pioneering teacher, researcher, and child care policymaker, who has contributed an integrative concluding chapter.

Download or read book Bad Guys Don't Have Birthdays written by Vivian Gussin Paley and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1991-05-21 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With insight and sensitivity, Paley explores the fantasy play of preschoolers and its self-selected themes of bad guys, birthdays, and babies. She share the kids' wonderful conversations in their own words, providing valuable instruction, without lecturing, on the needs and values of children. Winner of the 1990 James N. Britton Award, National Council of Teachers.

Download or read book Wally’s Stories written by Vivian Gussin PALEY and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'This remarkable book is delightful to read and rewarding to ponder. It is the kind of book a teacher quotes to friends, shares with colleagues, and uses as a source of working ideas and inspiration.' --The Elementary School Journal.

Download or read book Power & Voice in Research with Children written by Beth Blue Swadener and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2005 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume critically examines issues of power and voice in research with children. Chapters focus on the relationship between researchers and children and explore how to more adequately represent the complexities, multiple perspectives, and understandings that emerge when the research process more fully includes children and youth. Contributors explore issues of imposition and power that are inherent in traditional research and even more problematic with children. Authors document how children's voices can guide us in learning about research methodologies, theories, and praxis, as well as about issues of race, identity, class, linguistic diversity and gender within larger postcolonial contexts and research traditions.

Download or read book You Can’t Say You Can’t Play written by Vivian Gussin Paley and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1993-07-16 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who of us cannot remember the pain and humiliation of being rejected by our classmates? However thick-skinned or immune to such assaults we may become as adults, the memory of those early exclusions is as palpable to each of us today as it is common to human experience. We remember the uncertainty of separating from our home and entering school as strangers and, more than the relief of making friends, we recall the cruel moments of our own isolation as well as those children we knew were destined to remain strangers. In this book Vivian Paley employs a unique strategy to probe the moral dimensions of the classroom. She departs from her previous work by extending her analysis to children through the fifth grade, all the while weaving remarkable fairy tale into her narrative description. Paley introduces a new rule—“You can’t say you can’t play”—to her kindergarten classroom and solicits the opinions of older children regarding the fairness of such a rule. We hear from those who are rejected as well as those who do the rejecting. One child, objecting to the rule, says, “It will be fairer, but how are we going to have any fun?” Another child defends the principle of classroom bosses as a more benign way of excluding the unwanted. In a brilliant twist, Paley mixes fantasy and reality, and introduces a new voice into the debate: Magpie, a magical bird, who brings lonely people to a place where a full share of the sun is rightfully theirs. Myth and morality begin to proclaim the same message and the schoolhouse will be the crucible in which the new order is tried. A struggle ensues and even the Magpie stories cannot avoid the scrutiny of this merciless pack of social philosophers who will not be easily caught in a morality tale. You Can’t Say You Can’t Play speaks to some of our most deeply held beliefs. Is exclusivity part of human nature? Can we legislate fairness and still nurture creativity and individuality? Can children be freed from the habit of rejection? These are some of the questions. The answers are to be found in the words of Paley’s schoolchildren and in the wisdom of their teacher who respectfully listens to them.