Stranger in a Hostile Land

Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language defines play as “the playing or conduct of a game.” But is child’s play a simple game or an unconscious reflection of an innocent child’s home life? Vivian Gussin Paley is able to portray this idea to the reader in the book “White Teacher.” Paley has the opportunity to present her experiences of teaching kindergarten at an integrated school in a middle-class white neighborhood. Through this portrayal, the reader is able to observe through Paley’s eyes her multicultural classroom and see how children of different color, race, and sex are able to interact, learn, and play with one another. While Paley’s experiences in the classroom are not necessarily unique, these experiences allow the audience to become the “stranger in the hostile land” of childhood at a time when integration is still an unsure proposition. Play is the most important part of a child’s upbringing. But is play more than just a game? Through play one gains knowledge of how a child is growing and learning. One can watch a child play and begin to truly understand what their home life is like. Play gives a child the knowledge and understanding of not only themselves, but also others and the world around them.

While skin color is a trait that no one can change, the way we as humans speak can. “I observed that . . . during play with white children, their (Paley’s African American students) speech was getting to be middle-class school speech” (p. 27), During the beginning of Paley’s reflection, she begins to truly comprehend the impact that her white children have on her African American students and vice-versa. At one point in Paley’s reflection there are only a few African American students in her classroom. During this time she finds herself listening to the students’ speech and hearing the different patterns. Paley reflects by stating, “I began to realize that many of the black children regularly used different speech patterns when playing with each other and when playing with white children or teachers” (p.27). This book only reflects on kindergarteners, yet in society today many adults change their speech depending on the situation. Is a kindergarten classroom an adolescent window into what a young child will someday offer to society? Every child wants to play. By gaining the ability to change their speech, a child might feel more at ease with different races and be able to play with more diverse groups of people.

When girls are young, dolls become a solid figure in their lives. The dolls, however, have a more important role in a little girl’s life; they become small parts of storylines that mirror events in the child’s home. In Paley’s classroom, this is very prevalent. Each child begins to understand what another is going through in “the doll corner.” This small part of the room becomes a soap opera for all who are interested in observing. Every part that each child plays gives the child a greater knowledge and respect about the differences between themselves and others. At one point, a white mother of one of the students visits the class with a black baby. “White people aren’t suppose to marry with black people” (p. 109), notes Rena, a black child in Paley’s class. While the concept was hard to grasp for a young girl whose feelings obviously reflected those of her parents, she began to understand that a mixed marriage was something that was acceptable. So did many of the other children. The next day, Claire, another black child in the class, came to school with a white baby doll. While there was some surprise expressed by another student, Claire reassured her it was fine, since “Eric’s mother is white and she has a black baby. I am a black mother with a white baby” (p. 110). Through this experience, the children again gained knowledge of the world that surrounds themselves and the other students.

While Paley’s main focus in her writings was race, she did find that religion came into play during her time of reflection. Not all children understood what different religions were, yet one young girl in Paley’s class named Barbara observed the issue. Barbara spent the majority of her time finding out who was Jewish, even asking some children more than once just to make sure. Paley noted, however, that Barbara never asked a child who was black. Barbara came to school one day and decided to form a Jewish club, however, only whites could join the club. Paley was concerned by this. She began to realize that maybe the children did not comprehend the idea of different cultures. It was then she decided it was best to show children that there are many types of religions and traditions in the world and each must be understood. Paley chose to have her children bring different types of music from their various religions and cultures to teach them tolerance towards others’ views. Through this exercise, the children began to realize that no matter what religion another was, they could still play, talk, or even form clubs with one another. The children in the classroom understood that they must look deeper than the color of another’s skin to understand their culture and the person themselves. Through this exercise, some children who would never play with another because they were different in some way began to cherish the others’ differences and accept them in their play.

Paley finds through her year of reflection that no matter what race, sex, or religion the child is, they all want to play. She realizes that whether the child was black or white, all her children affected her life in amazing ways. Paley gives the reader an understanding of how play can reveal so much more of the child than just a simple game. It is a way for the child to act out problems they have seen, some which are not even perceived as tribulations at their age. Through play, children are able, unconsciously, to gain a better understanding and respect of not just their own home life and their own culture, but their peers’ culture and world. Every child-white, black, Mexican, Jewish, or Christian-has the right to play. And sometimes that right of play is the only thing that can make a stranger in a hostile land realize they are not a stranger and they are not in this world alone.