Teachers learn from children

Abstract

In the sixties the young child was rediscovered. In the seventies play is the revelation. Most of what has been written about play is directed toward its value for the young child. Despite the lack of empirical data on play, few disagree that play is essential to the development of the child. Few disagree that play holds the potential for growth and development of the whole childsocially, emotionally, physically, and intellectually. It is doubtful that even the therapeutic value of play for the child would be denied. Nursery educators have traditionally valued play as a learning media for children. But we have valued it for an additional, perhaps even more basic, reason. It is through the play of the young child that nursery school teachers come to know and understand the children they teach. A good teacher is a sensitive teacher and that sensitivity comes in large measure from being an astute observer of children.