Written by a recipient of a MacArthur award, gained for her pioneering work on the storytelling technique and its use in the classroom, this book focuses on the challenge posed by the isolated child to teachers and classmates alike in the community of the classroom. It is the story of Jason - the loner and outsider - and his ultimate triumph and homecoming into the society of his classmates. As the reader follows Jason's struggle, it can be seen how the classroom is a crucible within which the young discover themselves and learn to confront new problems in their daily experience. The book is an essay on the practice of teaching young children and the author uses children's stories as a vehicle of instruction.

Teacher and author Vivian Paley is highly regarded by parents, educators, and other professionals for her original insights into such seemingly everyday issues as play, story, gender, and how young children think. In "The Classrooms All Young Children Need", Patricia M. Cooper takes a synoptic view of Paley's many books and articles, charting the evolution of Paley's thinking while revealing the seminal characteristics of her teaching philosophy. This careful analysis leads Cooper to identify a pedagogical model organized around two complementary principles: a curriculum that promotes play and imagination, and the idea of classrooms as fair places where young children of every color, ability, and disposition are welcome. With timely attention paid to debates about the reduction in time for play in the early childhood classroom, the role of race in education, and No Child Left Behind, "The Classrooms All Young Children Need" will be embraced by anyone tasked with teaching our youngest pupils.