What are the motifs in White Teacher by Vivian Gussin Paley?

The social dynamics of kindergarten aged children is a recurring idea. As a kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Paley spent her days observing her students in play. Mrs. Paley began to notice differences in the interactions between white students and blacks, as well as white and blacks among other whites or blacks. Mrs. Paley noticed that when students would chose who they played with, they did not always pick children of their own race. Many children would chose children whose characteristics were more like their own.