Between Feeling and Fact: Listening to Children

Brenda Engel believes that parents and teachers can learn a great deal about young children's attitudes and fears about nuclear weapons by closely attending to their behavior. Here she analyzes a discussion that took place in a class of kindergarten through second-graders who were responding to the theme, "If I Were Boss of the World" The children's conversation reveals their attitudes toward war toys and war play as well as their inner distinctions between play and reality. Engel's commentary illuminates the way imaginative invention helps children sort out feelings, not only about war and nuclear weapons but about many aspects of their happiness and security in the world.