To our Viewers,

Many years ago, I was talking with my graduate students about the serious problem of peer rejection among children. We read the book “You Can’t Say You Can’t Play” by Vivian Paley that introduced a simple but profound idea: social acceptance can be taught in the classroom.

At our local elementary school we were lucky enough to find a classroom where acceptance was being taught and children’s sense of belonging ‘fostered.’ We were able to capture it on film, and the results were striking.

Though the children are now grown, this idea of belonging and social acceptance is more important than ever— not just for kids, but for classrooms, families and communities.

Amanda Harrist PhD

Oklahoma State University

Belonging is an extended excerpt of REJECT documentary. Running time 57 minutes.

“Vivian Gussin Paley’s book ‘You Can’t Say You Can’t Play’ is arresting in its title, magical in its appeal, and inspiring in its message...[It] illustrates how the teacher’s art can attack the evil of exclusion at its childhood root. Now, Mrs. Paley, we need your help in weeding out the pernicious practices that afflict the adults of our exclusionary society.”

— Derrick Bell, New York Times Book Review