"Retired" teachers like Paley (You Can't Say You Can't Play) never actually retire, since children were never just a job but a lifelong passion and the source of their own creative inspiration. In this latest installment of her working memoirs, Paley takes readers to Mrs. Tully's extraordinarily wise child-care center in the Chicago area. Paley and Tully both believe in storytelling/theater play as an effective, happy way of working with even the youngest of children. For a powerful technique, it's deceptively simple: the child tells the grownup a story, maybe just one word long— it can be as simple as "Mama" (the "best reason to tell a story" when you're only two, says Tully). The adult writes it down and then gives it back to the students to act out. By performing their classmates' stories, the students share what's important with each other, while learning to see and listen to others. Paley doesn't need expert opinions to flesh out her book—when it comes to progressive education, she's quite an expert herself (a former kindergarten teacher and winner of a MacArthur Award). But despite her credentials, it's the classroom stories that drive home the book's important points (e.g., "one child scorned is every child's humiliation" or "you can't stay mad while you're telling a story"). As Paley reminds readers, the "work" of school is not to learn the numbers and letters as quickly as possible, but to learn to come together and build a community. A must-read for all thinking parents and teachers. (Oct.)
