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School Days and Preschool Days, Too:
A treasury of anecdotes culled from my work and play as a preschool worker and an elementary school after- school activities supervisor
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THE ARGUMENT CLINIC

     A day or so after the birth of the laughing club, a little boy named Carlos, full of joy and not particularly verbal, shouted a facetious "Nooooo!" to something I said in the play yard. I'm realizing now that Carlos' "No!" contains as much joy as most "Yesses".
      I wondered what it might be like to create a sort of counterpoint to Carlos. I also wondered if I could get him to say "Yes" with the same exhuberance.
     I faced him and shouted an enthusiastic "Yes!" to which he responded with an even more energetic "Noooooo!"
      We were off! I "Yessed" back, shouting my affirmations to the very heavens. This time, several other children picked up on our energy and joined Carlos in his "No"!
      "YES, YES, YES!!" I came back again. "NO, NO, NO!!" chorused the children.
     After a couple days I tried taking the "No" side. Before long Carlos did switch over to "Yessssss!" and we enjoyed many contentless, high-energy "arguments" after that. We just enjoy the energy of the game. Neither of us ever cares which side we take. In fact, one of us will deftly switch sides in mid-argument after awhile, and then the other changes too. You need two sides for an argument!

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