Using Walter Benjamin to rethink children's non-participation in play activities.

This article examines the phenomenon of preschool children spending time on the thresholds of their classmates' activity areas, using Walter Benjamin's concepts of the arcades, the threshold, and the flâneur to reconceptualize these behaviors. Drawing parallels between 19th-century Parisian arcades and contemporary preschool classrooms, the authors suggest that children's presence on the periphery may reflect not only shyness or confusion but also anticipation, reflective observation, or quiet resistance to the structured demands of progressive early childhood education. The article argues for recognizing these threshold behaviors as alternative forms of participation and attentional diversity rather than deficits, encouraging educators to reconsider intervention strategies and the spatial and temporal organization of preschool activities. Ultimately, it proposes that thresholds can be valuable spaces for children's engagement, offering new perspectives on participation, attention, and agency in early childhood settings.