you can play

On a morning stroll with Lucy, I repress my urge to listen to FAR by Regina Spektor for fear of overplaying it and instead tune in to an August podcast of This American Life, the weekly public radio program. The episode's title is, "The Cruelty of Children," and host Ira Glass in his clipped, northern accent reminds us that its not cruelty toward but OF children. Act one, the always hilarious David Sedaris reading "I Like Guys," a short story on his junior high experiences with closeted homosexuality and his trip to a summer camp full of glistening boys in Greece. (The story is published in his book, Naked.) Act two is a dry tale of children not helping a man stuck at the bottom of a well. I find it boring and cruel and fast-forward to act three.

It's an interview with kindergarten teacher Vivian Paley, who implemented the rule, "You Can't Say You Can't Play" in her class back in the eighties. The best ideas are always the simplest. She explains why she decided on the rule, how the kids reacted with disbelief but soon behaved as if this was always the way things were. People naturally tend to include some and exclude others, even from a very early age. But, niceness can be mandated, and taught, and then it becomes an ingrained habit. I wish I'd read this before my first year of teaching. Though it sounds like a common sense rule that would lead to classroom utopia, I've never heard of a teacher using this rule. I can't wait to try it! Yet another reason I long to return to elementary classroom teaching ASAP.

You Can't Say You Can't Play: book preview