Katherine Archer

Teaching Memoir

You Can’t Say You Can’t Play by Vivian Paley

Describe a passage, paragraph, or chapter that gripped or affected you the most. What is it

about this particular passage or chapter that “gets to you”? How does it connect to you

personally, or to your view of teaching?

The second paragraph of the whole book is something that still stuck with me throughout

reading the book because relates to something that made such an impact in my personal life

growing up. The main sentence that got to me was “Long after hitting and name-calling have

been outlawed by the teachers, a more damaging phenomenon is allowed to take root, spreading

like a weed from grade to grade (Paley 1)”. I found this sentence very true, sadly. Though I hate

to say it, there were some students in my grade that never seemed to fit in or try to fit in from my

perspective, however, I know after reading this book, that their feelings can be greatly affected

by this. I think that it’s unfair to cast judgment on a classmate at a young age and then keep that

same judgment all throughout the grade years. Everyone changes and everyone deserves a fresh

start, however, some people just aren’t willing to let go of the person they were when they were

in kindergarten. Another part of the paragraph that stuck out to me was “Certain children will

have the right to limit the social experiences of their classmates (1)”, which is something I can

relate to greatly. I had someone in my class from preschool to senior year, that made school just

a little bit harder when it came to the social aspect of it. Ever since second grade, that I can

remember, there was one classmate of mine where if she didn’t like you, she made it known.

Though she didn’t limit my social experiences in elementary school because we were friends, as

we grew up, we grew apart, causing me to be one of those classmates that she made sure knew

that she was having a better time without me. With that being said, since I am able to have both
Katherine Archer

prospectives, I feel that I am aware of what to look for when it comes to that type of play in the

classroom. While peer-tutoring kindergarten in high school, I was able to pick out the children

that limit other social experiences, as well as the children whom they were limiting.

Lastly, write a narrative summary from the above reflections emphasizing, in particular,

what you learned about yourself as a prospective teacher (or about children as learners).

Though I attended a very small elementary and high school (to get an understanding, my

graduating class had 21 students), social hierarchy was something I still dealt with throughout all

the school years. When thinking about my career as a teacher, I have often worried about making

sure I will be able to teach the students and other scenarios along those lines. However, I haven’t

really thought deeply into a social hierarchy in the classroom, though I did experience it myself. I

think that Vivian Paley did a good job of nailing into my brain that yes, social hierarchy does

exist, even at such young ages. I think part of me forgot about that because I don’t really

remember much of my lower elementary years. After reading this book, I know a little bit more

of how I can recognize social hierarchy in the classroom as well as how it will affect students.

Like Paley states in her book, “How casually one child determines the fate of another. By

kindergarten, a structure begins to be revealed and will soon be carved in stone (1)”, having

children be left out starts at a young age, but it will soon become more permanent in the next

upcoming years with those students who are being left out, which is awful in my opinion. If I

were to be left out of a group in kindergarten, I can be a totally different person by third grade

and it’s not very fair for people to look at me as if I were the same person in kindergarten.