This was a preview from keynote presenter, Vivian Gussin Paley who spoke at the 2011 NAEYC Annual Conference.

Paley's keynote address: "Who will save the kindergarten? It is time to reinvent the garden of children, and only their teachers can come to the rescue" took place at the Annual Conference on Nov. 2 from 4:30–6:00 p.m.

: Why does kindergarten need to be saved? How does story telling and story acting connect with kindergarten teachers saving kindergarten? What is your most important message to kindergarten teachers?

Learn more about the Annual Conference

Read the Young Children interview with Vivian Paley about story acting and storytelling.

Vivian Paley:  I think it is unrealistic to imagine—and I myself have stopped imagining—that kindergarten will be retransformed into the kindergarten of my early teaching years of the 1960s and 1970s. It’s not necessary. It’s not an either or and it’s not an all or nothing issue. There are many ways that we as early childhood educators can both take play seriously and find room for a variety of ways of playing, of using play, and of creating a more literate environment based on play, and still meet the standards that we are now required by society to fulfill. What I want to emphasize in my keynote address is that it’s possible to use play and scripts to transform how we think about kindergarten. In my keynote I will provide examples of teachers who are practicing the art of play. I will present lively and wonderful scenarios that describe how play and story acting can transform kindergarten.

Teachers are wondering how they can justify and give themselves permission to allow time for play and I will tell them that the transformation of spontaneous play into script contains all the tools we need to prepare children for the next step. We have changed the rules for kindergarten without providing transition, without allowing the main subject, the child, to enter the transition and work through it. That is what play and using scripts that come from play can help all of us do. Play and the scripts we develop from play can put things into context for us. We can allow our own tendency toward storytelling to direct us. We will learn through examples of other teachers and I will include many, many examples in my keynote.

When I began teaching, and also well into my career, such a question, “How can we save kindergarten?” would have puzzled the listener. People would have responded, “What do you mean? Nothing is happening to kindergarten. It doesn’t need to be saved.” Fast forward to 2011—now everyone understands what I mean when I say we need to save kindergarten and everyone knows that we need to talk about it. We’ve come to a place where the question needs to be asked. Now that question receives approving nods. It’s something we need to talk about. I hope my talk will provide some answers, a framework where we can take play and transform kindergarten into what it needs to become.