Wally’s Stories

Vivian Gussin Paley, Vivian Gussin PALEY

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Year: 1987
• Print ISBN: 9780674945937, 9780674945920
• eBook ISBN: 9780674252691
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Teachers are often taught that young children are incapable of logical thought. Prone to fantasy and unruffled by inconsistency, preschool children are frequently baffled by the first lessons of early schooling. Trained to gently resist the child's illogic, teachers sometimes create just the incomprehension and anxiety they mean to avoid. In Wally's Stories, Vivian Paley shows that none of this need be so.

Wally's Stories is itself a story: the story of the evolution of a kindergarten classroom in which Paley learned to stop fighting childish fantasy and instead make use of it to stimulate the very best brand of thinking her five-year-olds can muster. Stories also lie at the heart of her classroom: stories that are first told by one of the children, then transcribed by the teacher, and then acted out by the class in dramatic productions of their own design. Paley shows that in the course of creating their own dramatic world, five-year-olds are capable of thought and language far in advance of what they accomplish in traditional classroom exercises. The children's stories also become a vehicle that they can use to explain themselves to their teacher and to one another. Together, teacher and children develop an unusual environment, one that is logical and literate, based on rules of fairness, friendship, and fantasy.

Vivian Paley's book is as refreshing as her teaching method—a new kind of book about a new kind of classroom.

Fairies

“Why did God invent checkers so you can’t move backwards?” Eddie wondered. He was losing in our game of checkers.

“Did God invent checkers?” I asked.

“It had to be God because a magician would trick you,” Eddie replied. “By the way,” he said a few moments later, “Warren moves on the red spaces.”

“Why didn’t you show him how to play?”

“I did, but he keeps doing it. I think it’s because he’s Chinese.”

“I doubt if Chinese people play checkers in a different way, Eddie.”

“Sure they do. God invented a different way to play in Chinese. What’s the use of being Chinese if you don’t do things different?”

Children provide their Magical Beings with a continual supply of reasonable answers and specific expectations. God represents order and fairness; everything that depends on rules is attributed to Him. Fairies are likely to be associated with the pleasant surprises in life, magicians with tricks and mischief. Fairies, being more like God, can be trusted; magicians are more like people and must be viewed cautiously.

No fairy is heralded more than the tooth fairy, and the kindergarten is her kingdom. The first tooth loss usually occurs between five and six, and the idea of being rewarded by a fairy suits the child’s notion of the kind of world God runs.

Although Wally had been tempted to trick God, he would not consider tricking the tooth fairy. When Kim told him her cousin fooled the tooth fairy by placing a kernel of corn under her pillow, he was incensed.

“I don’t believe you! You’re lying!” We were coming back from a farm trip shortly before Halloween, and Kim had been staring at the bushel of corn next to her feet. Wally sat beside her on the bus seat, holding a big pumpkin on his lap.

“It’s true. Ask my mother. She believes my cousin.” When challenged, one could always call on an absent mother for verification.

I leaned over from across the aisle. “I heard you arguing about the tooth fairy. Do you mind if I ask the other children for their opinions tomorrow?”

Wally answered quickly. “Sure. That’ll be a good discussion for you.”

Table 1
Teacher:	Wally said you can’t fool the tooth fairy. Kim thinks you might trick her with a piece of corn.
Jill:	He’s right. You shouldn’t try because she wouldn’t trick you. Only magicians trick people.
Deana:	Magicians can make things disappear.
Lisa:	So can fairies.
Wally:	Magicians make things invisible and fairies don’t.
Eddie:	Wait a minute, Wally! You forgot something. Magicians can’t make themselves invisible and fairies can become invisible any time they want to.
Wally:	Oh, yeah. Else how could they take your tooth?
Table 2
Teacher:	Wally told Kim that nobody can fool the tooth fairy. Kim thinks you might be able to do it.
Warren:	She could be in your room waiting until you fall asleep. Or she could come through the door.
Tanya:	Not in my house. My daddy, he double locks all the doors and windows. No one can have a key to the back door unless my daddy says so.
Warren:	The tooth fairy comes through the wall. But a magician can trick people like this: he puts on a disguise and then he says, “Here’s some new keys. The old ones don’t fit.” Then he keeps a key for himself so he can sneak in.
Tanya:	He can’t fool my daddy.
Warren:	He can’t fool God but he can always fool people.
Mickey:	Unless God tells you the magic words.
Andy:	Like in church?
Tanya:	Oh, that’s how? My daddy knows about that. That’s praying. I didn’t know that was magic words.
Table 3
Teacher:	Kim said she might try to fool the tooth fairy.
Ellen:	How would she do that?
Teacher:	By pretending a kernel of corn was a tooth.
Ellen:	She couldn’t do that. You have to have a place in your mouth for the tooth.
Rose:	Can she see the space if your mouth is closed?
Ellen:	She’s invisible. She can see inside your mouth.
Tanya:	Here’s how you could trick her. When your t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Prologue
• Wally
• Stories
• Rulers
• Jealousy
• Fairness
• Magic
• Wishes
• Fairies
• Rose
• Bad and Good
• Robbers
• Man in the Moon
• Theater
• Babies
• Fish
• Santa Claus
• Pulley
• Numbers
• Martin Luther King
• Birthdays
• Akemi
• Fairy Tales and Superheroes
• Monsters
• Lies
• Sugar
• Valentines
• Tricks
• Moving
• Actors
• Lessons
• Safety
• Quarters
• Ladder
• Carrots
• Girls and Boys
• Appendix