ABSTRACT
The children in the following examples write about their obsessions. When they come into school, both at the beginning of their school careers, and at the beginning of each day, children know a great deal about the parts of the world that matter to them most. Also, youngsters of four or five have suffered: they have been lost in shops and argued with their parents; they have had tantrums and bad dreams; they have fallen out with friends; they have been bereaved of pets, or, possibly, relatives; they have been ill, and had accidents. But, although children come to school with all this ability, experience, passion and suffering, we as teachers tend to discount it, rather than build on it.
