Hide and seek: A game reimagined

We live in a culture that teaches us to value being seen and heard above all else. In early childhood classrooms teachers are encouraged to create individual spaces for every child and to artfully display their work as it is created. Especially in Euro-Western, neoliberal contexts, policy and curricula commonly call for early childhood professionals to pay special attention to children and families who come from immigrant or otherwise marginalized backgrounds. We are urged to acknowledge and elevate children's and families’ differences for all to see. But does everyone—child, teacher, and caregiver—want to be seen and heard all the time? What are the affordances and constraints of the visibility injunction under which we live? In this article we set out to reimagine the classic hide-and-seek paradigm in order to shed fresh light on the place of hiddenness and withdrawal from public view in the formation of positive self-regard. Is the joy of hiding always defined by the anticipation of being found? Are the pleasures of seeking only realized by the possibility of finding something/someone or is seeking an activity with its own rich rewards? Our stories and responses to each other are set out in a call-and-response pattern that echoes the six semi-structured hour-long conversations on which this article is built. Musical interludes are provided between each story/response couplet offering readers moments to pause, reflect, and argue with us as they move through the article.