Boy on the Beach: Building Community through Play - Hardcover

Paley, Vivian Gussin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226645037 ISBN 13: 9780226645032

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2010

Synopsis

Four-year-old Eli plays in the sand on the beach, playing fireman, protector, and scout, battling waves and defeating invisible monsters. But then a new playmate, Marianne, arrives with her doll, and the boy's stories adapt to accommodate hers: the fireman saves the doll from drowning, but then the doll's mother and father put it safely to bed. What can the richly imagined, impressively adaptable fantasy world of these children tell us about childhood, development, education, and even life itself? For fifty years, educator Vivian Gussin Paley has been exploring such questions - by paying close attention to the imagery, language, and lore of young children. With "The Boy on the Beach", she continues to do so, using her time-honored method of letting children tell the stories of their play in their own words, revealing the developing logic and learning that enable them to create meaning from the complicated world around them. Combining those careful accounts of make-believe with gentle but incisive analysis and a series of letters between Paley and a fellow teacher in Taiwan, "The Boy on the Beach" reveals the ways that children use their powers of invention to develop the flexibility needed to form a society based on friendship, fantasy, and fairness - an ideal that all educators should foster. Full of wonderful, inimitable stories from the classroom, "The Boy on the Beach" is vintage Paley, a wise and delightful reminder of the importance of play and the enduring appeal of stories.

About this title

Review

"Parents and teachers alike will gain insight from Paley's contemplative, creative approach to play."

--Publishers Weekly

"The reader is left with the sense that Paley affords as much respect to the teachers as to the children themselves. In documenting her experiences with learners of all kinds, Paley raises questions without providing pat answers. Her purpose is to provide readers with much to think about." --Harvard Educational Review

"Of the many books in our field on the critical role of play in the lives of young children, those with Paley's unique voice and insight stand out. . . . This book nourishes our teaching souls." --Young Children

About the Author

Vivian Gussin Paley worked for nearly forty years as a preschool and kinder-garten teacher and is the author of thirteen books about young children, including, most recently, A Child's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0226645037
• ISBN 13: 9780226645032
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 96