the Importance of Fantasy, Fairness, and Friendship in Children’s Play - An Interview with Vivian Gussin Paley

Oct 15, 2026

An interview with Vivian Gussin Paley explores how fantasy, fairness, and friendship are cultivated through children’s play and why that play is increasingly restricted. It contrasts past classrooms where pretend play could expand safely with current policies that limit recess and ban certain kinds of play. Paley explains that play functions as children’s serious work and vital “love,” supporting complex social and cognitive development when adults observe, listen, and create time for it.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

The Three Pillars of Children’s Play

Why Play Is No Longer “King”

Play as Children’s Work

the Importance of Fantasy, Fairness, and Friendship in Children’s Play An Interview with Vivian Gussin Paley Vivian Gussin Paley is a teacher, writer, lecturer, and advocate for the importance of play for young children. Author of a dozen books about children learning through play, she has received numerous honors and awards including an Erickson Institute Award for Service to Children, a MacArthur Foundation Fellows award, and a John Dewey Society’s Outstanding Achievement Award. Paley taught early-childhood classes for thirty-seven years—chiefly at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools—and in her books she describes and reflects on her own learning experiences shared with thousands of students. Her writings focus primarily on three major areas of concern she sees in children: fantasy, friendship, and fairness. Paley learned early the value of observing and listening to children, recording and studying what they said and did in her classroom, and using what she discovered to improve her teaching and children’s lives. In all of this, Paley has been a gatherer and teller of stories, and she remains so in this interview and in her continuing work as a sought-after speaker and consultant. Her latest book, forthcoming in 2010, is The Boy on the Beach: Building Community through Play. American Journal of Play: InA Child’s Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play, you wrote,“There was a time when play was king and early childhood was its domain.” Why is that no longer true? What has happened? Vivian Gussin Paley: Once kindergartners could crawl under tables and between chairs meowing and woofing in secret communication, and they weren’t considered too babyish and told to stop.“Pretend you’re a lost kitty and then you meet a puppy” could safely follow, and there would be time to flesh out character and plot. Those days are fast disappearing. I walked into a kindergarten classroom this past winter and the meowmeow, woof-woof part of the drama had just begun under the math table. The teacher smiled apologetically, jumped up, and closed the door to her room.“Now the children can play a little,” she said.“We’ve had to skip recess for three weeks because no one will clear away the ice and broken bottles in © 2009 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois the playground. This sort of play and all superhero play are banned anyway, so I protect the children’s rights by closing the door.” “Is there no way to explain the puppy play to your principal?” I asked.“Actually,” she said,“I did present very convincing evidence to her. There was a crisis recently when Erik accidently pushed Jenny against the wall while coming back from watching a film, which is the school’s substitute for recess. The children were all pent up, and a certain amount of pushing was inevitable after that much sitting. Jenny’s parents came to school, and everyone was furious with Erik. The principal totally humiliated him. A few days later, Jenny decided to be a puppy, and she told Erik he was the big brother puppy who was taking her for a walk. Suddenly they were friends, and all the past hurts were gone in a moment of intimate puppy play. This is what I tried to explain—play on its simplest terms. The principal smiled but said,‘Sorry, there’s no time for that.’” Kindergarten teachers know the cost of cutting down free playtime, but few people who set policy are listening. Kindergarten children have been arbitrarily reclassified as pseudo–first graders, and, in the preschools, there is pressure to prepare children for kindergarten standards. No matter how we look at it, young children are being deprived of at least two years of spontaneous, imaginative play. AJP: In A Child’s Work, you tell how, during your senior year in college, a nursery-school teacher introduced you to the notion that “play is the work of children.” What is it about children’s play that makes it work in your view? And is adults’ inability to see that connection par

FAQs

What are the three major areas Vivian Gussin Paley focuses on in children?

She focuses on fantasy, friendship, and fairness, viewing play as the primary way these concerns develop in young children.

Why does Paley say play is no longer “king” in early childhood?

Adults increasingly replace free play with academic tasks and reduce or remove recess time, leaving children with less spontaneous imaginative play.

How does Paley explain children’s play as “work”?

She argues that play is a serious, necessary occupation for children—work intertwined with love—requiring complex practice in social interaction and thinking.

Oct 15, 2026

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