Boys & girls : superheroes in the doll corner

In "Boys and Girls," Vivian Paley has re-created a year of kindergarten teaching in which she explored the differences in the ways children play and fantasize.

Each year, swords and purses in hand, the children rush to proclaim themselves boys or girls.

Watching the Cinderellas and Darth Vaders pursue their separate fantasies, Paley questions the cliches and prejudices of the teacher's curriculum that reward girls' domestic play while discouraging boys' adventurous fantasies.

The children's own conversations, stories playacting, and scuffles are interwoven with Paley's observations and accounts of her attempts to alter the children's stereotyped play.

Their search for self-definition will reawaken our own childhood memories, and Paley's sensitive efforts to uncover her prejudices will illuminate our own biases, values, and expectations for our children.