“Stick to the rules that I say.” It’s a refrain from my childhood, uttered by my next-door neighbor to make clear that while we were playing at her house, she got to choose what we did and how we did it and to change her mind any time she pleased. I’m sometimes reminded of these backyard days when I read the debates on play in early childhood classrooms. It’s almost as if some believe that a teacher who plans and leads learning experiences is telling children to “stick to the rules that she says.”
Please visit National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) for the complete blog post.