Nursery World - Sector pays tribute to early years pioneer Vivian Gussin Paley

The early years sector is mourning the loss of renowned educator and author Vivian Gussin Paley, who has passed away at the age of 90.

A former kindergarten teacher, Vivian Gussin Paley’s approach to storytelling and story acting techniques to foster children’s creative play, inspired the Helicopter stories approach.

A patron of the charity Make BelieveArts, Ms Paley authored 13 books and received numerous awards for her work in promoting the importance of listening to children’s stories. In 1987, she received the Erikson Institute Award for Service to Children and was named as an Outstanding Educator by the National Council of Teachers of English in 2004.

Ms Paley was born and brought up in Chicago. After marrying, she lived for 12 years in New Orleans, where she trained and worked as a kindergarten teacher, and 12 years in New York, where she again worked as a teacher. But it was only after returning to her home town and taking up a position at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools that she started writing about her observations. Her first book was published when she was 50.

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