Chapter 2, The Inquiry, Is It Fair? Will It Work? Summary and Analysis

Paley keeps organizing discussion with students, and wants to expose the "You can't say you can't play" rule to scrutiny. Teachers are interested, but they don't understand that Paley's proposal is to get the group, the class as a whole, to change their expectations vis-à-vis outsider children. She asks whether the rule is fair and whether it can work. Students discuss their feelings of rejection with Paley and observe that some become bosses merely by playing the boss-game first. Those who are left out get rejected. Paley encourages the rule that everyone can play. The students often acknowledge that it is fair.

Paley tells her story again. Kareem tells Annabella that the flowers want to be left alone. He and Annabella get back in...