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You Can't Say You Can't Play
by Vivian Gussin Paley, Harvard
University Press (1993)
-- Review by Ellie Goldberg, M.Ed., for Kliatt Paperback
Book Review Guide
You don't have to be a kindergarten teacher to see the
profound wisdom and practical uses of Vivian Gussin Paley's classroom exercise
in social relations.
You Can't Say You
Can't Play is
an exploration of the basic underlying forces of social exclusion that makes
some children feel like strangers in their own classrooms. It is two stories in
one. On one level, Paley is describing her students' social development in
response to a new rule that prohibits anyone from excluding anyone else.
There is also a parable, a story about
the adventures of a magical magpie, that is a vehicle to help her students understand
and voice their feelings of rejection and loneliness. Both Paley's journal-like
reflections and imaginative story are deeply touching.
We clearly see that exclusion makes everyone feel
tentative and unsafe. In contrast, each time a cause for sadness in removed for
even one child, the classroom seems nicer. The result is increased experimentation and flexibility in
many activities. Everyone spends more time playing and playing with more
people. There are fewer power games and arguments. Paley's classroom shows us
many valuable lessons.
Paley believes that no one has the right to make anyone
feel unwanted or unliked. School
is a space that belongs to everyone. The challenge is protecting everyone's
equal ownership and participation.
Paley reveals all the small but significant ways that children develop
the practice of rejection. She talks us through her students' fears,
objections, and mistakes as they sort out the varied dimensions of shared
social responsibility and the dilemmas of the new rule.
If schools are ever going to really value diversity and
offer everyone equal opportunities, everyone is going to have to make the
social and personal changes that discourage "rejection" and promote
inclusive communities. It is a moral and social challenge that confronts us
all.
You Can't Say You Can't Play is
an extremely important book that will engage parents, students and teachers at
all school levels in much worthwhile self-reflection and social action. Highly
recommended.
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