cover image Behind the Playdough Curtain: A Year in My Life as a Preschool Teacher

Behind the Playdough Curtain: A Year in My Life as a Preschool Teacher

Patti Greenberg Wollman. Scribner Book Company, $21 (280pp) ISBN 978-0-684-19665-7

This journal of a teacher's experiences in an unidentified progressive nursery school in New York City is an eye-opener for those who think of preschool as games and cookies. As Wollman takes us on a ``roller-coaster'' ride with her 13 charges, she demonstrates how preschool is ``the civilizing year for children,'' as well as a challenge for the teacher. When family crises and tragedies like the death of a child impinge on classroom behavior, the intuitive faculties of this skilled teacher and her assistant are called upon. Wollman works to make her classroom a haven where enjoyment commingles with learning, and she encourages parental involvement. (Oct.)