The Role of Memory and Imagination in Learning Through Play

For several days in a row, the girl had positioned the ends of a plank of wood on car tires to make a balance beam upon which she played. She didn't object when other children wanted to try out her invention. Indeed, she welcomed them, giving tips and otherwise sharing the expertise she had developed over the course of her days of trial-and-error experimenting.One day, a group of boy stacked three tires one atop another then abandoned it to do other robust things. The girl contemplated the tower of tires for a moment before moving one end of her plank to the top of the stack, while leaving the other end on a single tire. Then, using the skills and knowledge she had been developing over the course of the preceding days, she attempted to balance up the incline.We can never know what is going on inside the head of another person, but it seemed as if she had asked herself, "What if I put one end on that stack of tires?" She had built this scenario based upon what she already knew about…