ABSTRACT
When teachers of young children get together to tell stories about their work, the content of their talks often consists of anecdotes about children’s sociodramatic play. Adults marvel at the detail of the characters, settings, and action children derive from the “real” world, delight in the imaginative leaps and connections that define children’s ongoing make-believe worlds, and both applaud and lament children’s social negotiation techniques. Children collectively spinning a story and stopping along the way to adjust their “frame” or just to check in with one another. Adults watch, sometimes with held breath, as children make moral decisions about who does what and how ideas get to be played, and their hearts respond to the emotional power of the characters and stories that children evoke. Pretend dramatic play reveals the essence of early childhood and privileges those who teach young children to a bird’s-eye view of the landscape of imagination created in the hearts and minds of those in their care.
