TRADITIONAL CHILDREN'S play is declining rapidly in the United States. Recess at schools, along with physical education and the arts, is being eliminated or reduced to make way for the growing and misguided state and national policies of high-stakes testing. Such testing, originating from and enforced by politicians, is widely opposed by national professional organizations and teachers themselves. The loss of free recess play, physical education, and the arts contributes to the rapidly growing epidemic of obese kids and detracts from broad developmental cognitive, social, physical, and emotional goals for children.