Vivian Paley

Vivian Paley is the main character of You Can't Say You Can't Play. Paley was born on January 25th, 1929 in Chicago. She earned a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1947 and began teaching. She became extremely interested in childhood learning and came to believed that the learning of children was restricted by strict boundaries between different areas of knowledge and forced memorization. When she was teaching in Great Neck, New York, she started to think that children would learn best in 'play' situations, and that Kindergartners should learn more within the context of play than is ordinarily practiced.

You Can't Say You Can't Play reflects Paley's developing teaching philosophy. She believes that learning occurs effectively during play but is faced with the fact that play is a profound source of social and intellectual development for children. Social hierarchies form in early childhood most directly during playtime...