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Chapter 1, You Can't Play, The Habit of Rejection

• As Paley turned sixty she became increasingly put off by the phrase "You can't play."

• Determined to remove this social practice of rejection from her Kindergarten classroom, Paley posted a new rule at the start of her class.

• Paley's twenty-five students were shocked, and only four (the outcasts) were happy about the new rule - "You can't say you can't play."
• With this new rule some of the children no longer saw a point to play if others can not be excluded.

• Paley worked to help children accept the new rule by initiating an imaginary story about Magpie, a bird who helps outcasts and shows them how to be strong.

• While Paley's classroom exuded stress and unhappiness, Paley was off to Canada to talk about "happy" classrooms.
• Angelo, one of Paley's students, did not understand the story about the magpie...

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