In the course of an ethnographic case study of a rural, Appalachian Head Start program, the researcher became increasingly aware of the bias she brought to the project in favor of the universal applicability of developmentally appropriate practice. The study was an extension of Sally Lubeck's "Sandbox Society" (1985), and focused on European-American teachers and their socioeconomic status. The study found that although the Head Start teachers exclusively professed to prefer an individualistic, child-centered model, in fact half the day's activities were the formal, teacher-directed group activities generally not considered developmentally appropriate for preschoolers. During the study, the researcher became aware that what the teachers were doing, based on their own life experiences, may in fact have been appropriate for children in that setting. The researcher concluded that a hybrid approach might be an alternative to choosing one type of program or the other. She also noted that early childhood educators must assess their assumptions and realize that a developmentally appropriate classroom may not always be appropriate for all children. (Contains 22 references.) (TM)