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Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158:16.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

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.

A second way that adults are messing up children's play is shared by parents and teachers alike. Computer play, television, and video games, potentially valuable tools for literacy and cognition, are poorly supervised, are more widely available in wealthy than in poor homes and schools, and are commonly used as babysitters. Children's growing addiction to sexual and violent video . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Joe L. Frost, EdD
Professor Emeritus
University of Texas
5517 Courtyard Dr
Austin, TX 78731
(e-mail: jfrost@mail.utexas.edu)