Recently I had the opportunity to be in the audience when the First Lady addressed the Partnership for a Healthier America’s inaugural Building a Healthier Future summit in Washington, DC.

Nipping at the heals of the largest Recess Roll-Out in the history of Playworks (100 staff and coaches/combined 216,316 miles traveled/72 schools/9 cities), we took school recess and children’s play to our biggest audience yet; the 1.5 million visitors and 500,000 commuters who will enter New York City’s Times Square through July 8, 2011!

Recently, I got an email from a software engineer, Ron, who heard an interview with me on our local NPR affiliate and was inspired to share a game he had created. Ron’s game, Logistics, is intended to inspire kids to play with the ideas of planning involved in the sorting and movement of objects--essentially a playful version of the management challenges inherent in fulfillment.

True or False: Your child’s school is only as safe as the surrounding neighborhood. The answer? False, according to a report released by the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago. Researchers there found that academic performance plays a bigger role in health and safety on school campuses than surrounding poverty and crime.

We are often asked how schools can justify spending money on recess at a time when other programs are being cut. It’s a logical question. But after 14 years on school playgrounds, we’ve seen first hand that recess is a real predictor of the school day. Good or bad, as recess goes, so goes the school day. When you invest in recess, you actually invest in classroom learning.

One of the dominating themes in the movement to restore play has been childhood obesity. The obvious connection between play and physical activity makes it a natural, if sometimes uncomfortable alliance.

In the last few weeks, I've received not one, but two, requests from principals asking Playworks to consider how we might adapt our approach to address the tumult of school buses. It seems that while the wheels on the bus are turning, children are no longer using that time for friendly conversation and games.

The first request came during a school visit in St. Paul, MN, where I was observing our program as adapted for snow and freezing temperatures.

In a recent article in Education Week, Richard Whitmire discussed the possibility that organized sports can possibly be detrimental to the academic development of African American boys.

Two weeks ago, Playworks hosted Play On 2010 at Columbia University in New York. The conference was designed to bring together individuals and organizations in the field of play and youth development. This is the second year we’ve taken it on, somehow forgetting each year how much energy it requires until we’re about ready to drop.