Living Democracy in the Sand Area

By Adrienne Lomangino, Head Teacher
 
A teacher sits in the sand area of Twos, near the newly built playhouse. Several children are using bowls, spoons and pans in the house and at the nearby table. Teacher: What are we making today?
Avi: Pizza … (He gathers a pizza pan and returns to the house.) Macaroni pizza! 
Teacher: What ingredients do you need? 
Avi: Munster, no, more things … cheese! We need cheese! 
He steps away to scoop sand onto the pan. The teacher turns to Tommy. 
Teacher: What are you making, Tommy? 
Tommy: Macaroni soup, it’s hotter.
 Avi: Here’s macaroni! It’s from our house. 
He pours water from bowl to bowl at the table in the sand area, singing “I’m making macaroni.” 
 
Scenarios similar to this one unfolded every day in the Twos sand area Tuesday and Thursday afternoon this winter. Teachers highlight such moments as examples of children functioning at the highest level, integrating their social, emotional, cognitive and physical selves. While all that is true, the children are also building a sense of lived democracy.
 
The idea of fostering the ideals of democracy often engenders visions of children voting about something happening in the classroom, such as which book to read or what name to give a pet. The abstraction of voting, counting votes, and the determination by majority is beyond the grasp of many young children. However, through their play, young children can have meaningful experiences with democratic ideals. In her 2011 study of lived democracy in Swedish preschools, Anette Emilson concluded, “On a more concrete level, democracy appeared as children’s opportunities to make their own choices, take the initiative, solve problems, think divergently and take risks.”
 
In a 1992 article published by Young Children, associate professor Joanne Hendrick identifies three practices that foster the principles of democracy in the early years: giving children the power to choose, the power to try, and the power to do. Children demonstrate all of these powers during their cooking play in the sand. The children in the sand area had the power to choose where to play, what materials to use and what to make. They could try to create whatever they imagined, and then had the time and space to do it, with support from a teacher if needed.
 
Throughout the environment, teachers set out materials to spark ideas, but the children have a strong voice in the purposes, practices, and uses of the environment. The teachers are certainly involved in observing, questioning, offering materials—prompting ways to extend the play. Yet they are continually responding to the ideas and preferences brought by the children. In this scenario, as in many play situations in the classroom, the teacher’s power and control are muted. In fact, the children take the role of cook, serving the teacher, in a role reversal from their everyday experience.
 
To highlight and extend children’s ideas, the teachers created menus that listed foods the children had previously stated they were making—some with corresponding illustrations. These menus became not only props for their play, but also a means for them to consider their own preferences and ideas in relation to those being presented. They elaborated on the menus or wrote their own, literally adding their mark to the play.
 
Living successfully in a democracy involves more than trusting and valuing one’s own ideas and competencies. Children also need to recognize that others have rights, too, and want to make their own choices. Within the democratic community, there are people with the power to enforce the rules for the welfare of all and make sure everyone’s rights are protected.
 
The interactive cooking play that unfolded in the sand area would not have occurred if children had been worried about others grabbing their dishes or flinging sand onto them while digging. Over the course of several months, the teachers have provided guidance about how to share materials (e.g., waiting until someone else is done with an item), rules for safe use of materials (e.g., not throwing sand), and reminders to keep in mind the proximity and needs of other children (e.g., not dumping shovelfuls of sand behind you onto the truck someone else is using).
 
Taking food orders and making menus.

While making choices about what to prepare, children experienced the diversity of preferences in the classroom community. Everyone has the right to his or her opinion. In one instance, a couple of children made soup in the sand area, offering it to peers. One peer stood upright on the red wooden board, responding, “I don’t want soup today.” The soup maker offered the soup again, to which the potential recipient again asserted, "I don't want any soup.” The children continued playing in the sand area. The process of making food for others has provided multiple opportunities for children to examine their own preferences, and even to creatively problem-solve about possible solutions to meet everyone’s desires, as in the following situation:
 
A teacher tells children preparing food in the sand that she would like salad. A child responds, “OK, I am making your salad!” and she puts sand in a bowl and stirs it. When the teacher elaborates, “Can I have cucumbers in my salad please?” the child looks at her for a moment, then says, “Actually, I don’t like cucumbers, I don’t like salad.” She pauses for another moment, then says, “I am going to make you cake salad, I like cake!” The teacher smiles and awaits her cake salad.
 
The way teachers interact with children is an essential part of this process. Through her research in Swedish toddler classrooms, Emilson and colleagues discerned three communicative qualities among teachers that were essential for children’s lived democracy learning: emotional presence, playfulness, and respect and curiosity about children’s own experiences and understandings. In the 2008 book Educational Encounters: Nordic Studies in Early Childhood, Emilson highlights that interactions that have these qualities are more equal in power than interactions that are more teacher-directed. These qualities are intricately entwined in the play-based and child-centered philosophy at Bing.
 
Through interactive play, children develop an awareness that everyone has the right to be heard and a valuable contribution to make. They learn to recognize differences and similarities among people and to value diversity. They build confidence and competence at making decisions by experiencing control over their lives. And they come to view the adult authority as a person who respects them, seeks to understand them and wants them to pursue their interests. Here is lived democracy in action.