Honoring the Process of Play A Child’s Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play

Vivian Gussin Paley
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago, IL
111 pp., ISBN 0-226-64489-8
$11.00

Recent national emphasis on accountability has stimulated a movement in early childhood toward greater use of academic curricula and standardized testing, which provide readily quantifiable results. Because this movement appears to be gaining momentum, the message of this book remains current: "The educational establishment has stopped admiring the stunning originality of its youngest students, preferring a list of numerical and alphabetical achievement goals" (p. 33). As a result, kindergartens and preschools have become places in which play is decreasingly valued as a key piece of teaching and learning.

The main concern appears to be that children seem less prepared and more at risk, so the solution is to move toward a more dependable, predictable curriculum. But Paley asks, in essence, which came first, the chicken or the egg? Has too much time spent in play led to more children being unprepared or are more children unprepared because they aren't given enough time to play? Paley asserts that an increased focus on learning through workbooks and computers places us in danger of "delegitimatizing mankind's oldest and best-used learning tool" (p. 8). She laments the rapid disappearance of time spent in play and defends the role of fantasy play in the social and cognitive development of young children.

An early childhood educator for almost 40 years, Paley has accumulated decades of evidence demonstrating not only the importance but the critical role of play as the path through which children learn. This book is not just about the value of "play" or "free play" but specifically fantasy play, in which children create imaginary scenarios and act them out, develop and follow specific rules, and adapt or change roles to fit the occasion. The value of including this type of play in a school day is regularly questioned by school administrators and parents but is fervently defended by teachers who have discovered how much children learn and how much can be learned about children as they play. Paley is perhaps the most fervent of these defenders, and she is discouraged by the loss of play in children's lives today. Where play was once considered the main work of children, it is now seen as a deterrent to academic achievement.

Written from the perspective of an educator who is herself developing a greater appreciation for children's fantasy play, Paley takes us on a journey through time as she shares stories of preschool and kindergarten children from multiple generations. Without references to which time period the stories were from, it would be difficult to tell, only because children today still play at being daddies and mommies, princesses and monsters, doctors and bus drivers, just as their parents and grandparents did before them. The names of their superheroes may have changed, but the intensity of their imaginations has not. Paley describes all children as, "natural-born storytellers who created literature as easily as I turned the pages of a book" (p. 16).

Paley views fantasy play as the "glue that binds together all other pursuits, including the early teaching of reading and writing skills" (p. 8). She shares Vygotsky's view of play, which is that children rise above themselves as they play, becoming more than their average selves. The stories in this book demonstrate this process, as each chapter shares the experiences of a child or group of children as they create imaginary roles for themselves that allow them to share their thoughts and feelings and communicate ideas they otherwise may have had difficulty expressing. When children are allowed to imagine freely, their minds are primed to engage new ideas. This is where the value of the process lies. Paley understands the importance of process while solving a math problem or conducting a scientific experiment, but wonders why the same value is not placed on the process of play. Her approach to play is an attempt to honor that process. She encourages teachers to provide children the time to play, to stop and listen to and record their stories, and interpret these stories to find the deeper meaning behind them.

Each chapter of this book provides simple, yet powerful testimony to the fact that fantasy play is in fact work and allows children to construct meaning in their worlds. This book is a pleasure to read and should be on the bookshelves of all teachers of young children. It also provides valuable insights for parents by interpreting pretend play in a way that will help them see the benefits of their children playing at home and at school. The first step honoring the process of play is believing in its potential, which will ultimately allow both teachers and children to stand tall above their ordinary selves.

Reviewed by Judi Stevenson-Boyd
Research Project Coordinator, NIEER