Customer Reviews

Under Deadman's Skin: Discovering the Meaning of Children's Violent Play

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book takes a thoughtful look at how a group of kindergarten children act out in their play the violent thoughts and worries that they have. It is also about how their teacher struggles with the question of how best to help them deal with their violent play, which she finds quite upsetting. It is not preachy book, much less a quick fix on violence in America. But if you are a kindergarten teacher or a parent of kindergartener you will end up seeing your children's play in a whole new way.

We adults so often overreact to children's "violent" play, but as a teacher and sometime child advocate I see how much richer and more complicated their make-believe is than what we so easily pigeonhole as "violence." Vivian Gussin Paley makes clear what such fantasy means to children, and why we should understand and participate in it, in this wonderfully readable book!

I hate to not rave about this, because the author seems like a great teacher and observer of children, but as a parent looking to understand the reasons why my son might be interested in violence I didn't finish the book with much more than a few good insights scattered throughout the book (mainly coming from an older child she talked to.)
I found the detailed conversations of the kids to go on for way too long and ended up scanning trying to find her thoughts and observations.
I loved the way she lead the kids in her class to make their own rules for violent games and I may use some of that myself with my son, but I can see it being more helpful for a teacher than a parent.
Also, the focus on violent media was mostly about bloody scary/horror movies and didn't address cartoon violence or video-game violence. So I DID learn to avoid the blatantly scary movies (which most parents probably would anyhow) but I didn't learn much about the impact of other media.

This book gives an interesting insight into the minds of children...especially boys. It is refreshing to read about a teacher who wants to understand her students so well. I appreciated the opportunity to think about violent play as a healthy way for children to express their feelings.