At the Firefly Gardens in suburban Pittsburgh, children and caregivers can explore a sensory playground filled with wind chimes, grassy tunnels and a mud box. Their playtime doesn鈥檛 end at the park though; each activity is paired with caregiver-focused messages and QR codes that encourage at-home activities.

The Washington County Park system, WashPA Outdoors and Pittsburgh鈥檚 PBS station, WQED, created the sensory playground using a pilot grant from Let鈥檚 Play PGH!, a Pennsylvania initiative that provides funding to local organizations to create playful learning experiences for people of all ages in public spaces, and Remake Learning, a peer network for educators in Pittsburgh.

The activities at the sensory playground, which is located in a community , were designed to foster intergenerational play and joint exploration, helping caregivers see play as 鈥渢he work of kids鈥� and understand how to actively support learning through shared activities, according to Gina Masciola, a program director for learning neighborhoods at WQED who sits on the Remake Learning Council.聽

鈥淪o the messaging really is for adults,鈥� said Masciola. 鈥淚t’s really about modeling and helping parents connect to their kids.鈥�

launched in summer 2023, when Remake Learning brought together organizations to work on prototypes for play installations. The initiative has to distribute, and has already doled out a majority of the money to organizations that are redeveloping spaces in the region, incorporating child development research, urban design and the science of play, said Tyler Samstag, executive director of Remake Learning.

Pittsburgh isn鈥檛 the first city in the U.S., or even in Pennsylvania to create public works that foster intergenerational play and learning. Samstag pointed to a simple and effective project in Philadelphia that put playful signage up in grocery stores encouraging parents to talk to their kids. Those relatively inexpensive installations can provide a boost for children鈥檚 literacy and language development, according to Samstag. 

Let鈥檚 Play PGH! was inspired by research from Playful Learning Landscapes, a joint project from Temple University鈥檚 Infant and Child Laboratory and the Brookings Institution, Samstag noted. Researchers examined how children spend their time outside of school 鈥� which for many, they said, was about 80% of their waking hours 鈥� and . The initial Learning Landscapes found that communities must buy into the project at the outset, create simple science-based activities and build on existing city infrastructure as much as possible.

鈥淲e put up this question, 鈥榃hat would playful learning installations prioritize? What would they look like?鈥欌�� Samstag said. 鈥淲hat might it look like if a bus stop turned into a site of learning, or a laundromat turned into a site of learning?鈥�

After brainstorming, participants tested out ideas in their communities by building prototypes, placing them in public spaces where children and caregivers could interact with them, and sought feedback from residents on what could make the designs more accessible, engaging and fun. WQED, for example, collaborated closely with Pam Kilgore from WashPA Outdoors and Washington City Parks to install the sensory playground and worked closely with Kilgore, who surveyed community members visiting the garden and asked them what they would like to see, Masciola said. She added: 鈥淲hen we are building anything, we know that the community is going to end up being the user. Those are the experts.鈥�

When WQED partnered with Washington City Parks and WashPA Outdoors to create the sensory playground, Masciola said, the team used the grant to buy materials for the prototype of the playground, scouring thrift stores for supplies to create homemade wind chimes. They also created a sensory tunnel with sticks, long grasses and bark woven throughout. The PBS Kids show, Elinor Wonders Why, inspired the signs and play prompts dotting the garden. Those signs were written for caregivers, not just children, with the intention of sparking curiosity.

A lot of PBS shows, like Daniel Tiger and Carl the Collector, really are 鈥渁bout modeling and helping caregivers interact with very young children,鈥� Masciola said. 鈥淢aking sure that families understand what it means to observe, encouraging them to maybe have a data collection notebook that they can record things in together with their children.鈥�

Another grantee, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, was invited by Let鈥檚 Play PGH! to join the initial cohort to transform the Frick Environmental Center, a public facility inside Pittsburgh鈥檚 largest park. The vision was to revamp the center, which serves as a nature and education hub for the city鈥檚 dwellers, into an area that would encourage caregivers to interact with their children, rather than just watch them. 

鈥淥ne of the deeper goals of this is promoting play between caregivers and children,鈥� said James Brown, director of education at the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and the Frick Environmental Center. 鈥淭his is not the place to let your kids go loose and then you’re just on your phone.鈥�

When Brown received feedback from caregivers after the first round of play testing, he said he noticed that the adults were taking on more of an observational role while their children were playing.

Then, when Brown鈥檚 team introduced play prompts, such as a hide and seek game or a cleanup song, and posted them around the space, the feedback from caregivers changed, he said.

鈥淲e found there was much more 鈥榳e鈥� statements, like 鈥榳e did this,鈥� and 鈥榳e built the habitat,鈥� and 鈥榳e were exploring,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淛ust that invitation was the game changer.鈥�

Frick has plans to continue with a larger scale redesign with more play installations, and has been translating caregivers鈥� feedback into plans for the next phase of the environmental center, Brown said. Last summer, he contracted a narrative muralist who read through the data from parents and kids, then drafted an artistic rendering for the space. Brown expects the artists working on the project to have installations ready by this spring.

With feedback in hand from people in the community who have experienced their installations, the Pittsburgh Park Conservancy and other grantees that have projects underway with Let鈥檚 Play PGH! are continuing to iterate on their prototypes. 

As of last month, the initiative has funded 16 projects 鈥� including the sensory playground in the Firefly Gardens and the Frick Environmental Center 鈥� with prototypes in motion, and intergenerational play is key to a number of them, Samstag said. One project he highlighted, 鈥淐layground,鈥� by the Manchester Craftsman鈥檚 Guild, made a bicycle-powered potter鈥檚 wheel as a way to improve access to the art of ceramics. Guild members retrofitted an old bicycle from the 1970s with a pottery wheel and took it around to local festivals throughout the summer where parents and grandparents pedaled with their kids. With the help of a new grant, the guild plans on building a suite of bicycle installations that can travel to various public spaces around Pittsburgh, Samstag said.

Joyful learning is so important, Samstag explained, adding that when he brings people together across all types of organizations and asks adults to reflect on their own experiences of play, the question sparks vivid memories. 

鈥淓veryone knows how important this is,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut it’s often overlooked because of all of the other things that you鈥檝e got to do day in and day out.鈥�

Correction: An earlier version of this story failed to include the pivotal role WashPa Outdoors played in the creation of the Firefly Gardens鈥� sensory playground. In addition, copy edits have been made throughout the story.

With everything going on in the world, why does the U.N. care about play?

The simple answer is that the world needs play more than ever. As critic Peter Brooks writes in , 鈥淲ithout play, we risk being overwhelmed by an inhuman world.鈥�

To understand more fully, start by thinking of play as not only an educational tool but also a human rights issue. In 1989, the asserted 鈥渢hat every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.聽That member governments shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life. They shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.鈥�

Early Learning Nation has covered a number of innovative programs dedicated to restoring and expanding play in the lives of young children, through strategies like playgrounds, , and . Here are three more playful enterprises to ponder:

1. A New Curriculum from Neighborhood Villages. In 鈥�,鈥� (Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education) Ben Mardell and colleagues write, 鈥淲hen people play, they are engaged, relaxed and challenged 鈥� states of mind highly conducive to learning. Through play, children and adults try out ideas, test theories, experiment with symbol systems, better understand social relations, take risks, and reimagine the world. As they lead their play, players develop agency. Exploring the unknown, they cultivate their imaginations and learn to deal with uncertainty. Joyfully playing with others, they develop empathy.鈥�

Inspired by this research, recently launched a new play-based curriculum in partnership with the LEGO Foundation and Boston Public Schools. 鈥淚n early childhood, play is learning,鈥� says Binal Patel, chief program officer. 鈥淭his first-of-its-kind curriculum, called , is a resource for educators, centering an anti-bias approach as well as developmentally appropriate practice for toddlers.鈥� In the first two weeks, the curriculum garnered over 300 downloads from 20 states and five countries.

2. Invitations to Learning in Ontario. The Government of Ontario issued in 2016, but Nadia Kenisha Bynoe and Angelique Thompson, former Early Reading Coaches for the Toronto District School Board, noticed that young children were being deprived of play. Their new book, 鈥�,鈥澛爀ncourages educators to honor playful approaches to curriculum and learning. 鈥淧lay allows children to show what they know,鈥� says Thompson. 鈥淚t supports different learners because it provides entry points for them to make their thinking visible.鈥�

Bynoe says 鈥檚 work on culturally relevant pedagogy was a major influence on the book, which recommends presenting children鈥檚 books on subjects children can relate to 鈥� alongside materials they can manipulate 鈥� as invitations to learning. 鈥淟oose parts,鈥� she adds, 鈥渁llow children the liberty to share their theories in ways that are not stifled.鈥�

3. Taking the Early Childhood Ethos and Moving It Up. 鈥淧reschool teachers and museum educators are the kings and queens of the new universe,鈥� proclaims , professor of psychology at Temple University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. (She鈥檚 also chief science advisor and co-founder of , which are built in classrooms, communities and the digital space). Referring to a huge foundation that recently launched an initiative to create more assessments for young children, she maintains, 鈥淲e adults are so stressed that we put the stress on our kids, and I don’t think we should take it anymore.鈥�

Hirsh-Pasek鈥檚 playful learning colleague, Andres Bustamente, an assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Education, says, 鈥淚n California, there is a rapid expansion of for 4-year-olds, which is bringing preschool into the elementary school system, but we don’t want to start treating preschoolers like older kids. In fact, we want to do the opposite, taking the early childhood ethos and moving it up. Our current work comes from an intentional move by the LEGO Foundation to start in kindergarten and go through fourth grade. And the leads of the project are all early childhood people.鈥�

A Global Mindset Shift

Internationally, the play deficit is a real threat. , 59% of children would like to play more than they do now; and 79% of children would like to play more with their parents or caregiver.

We intuitively know that play is an essential part of childhood. , we also know that play supports cognitive development, social skills and all the skills we want our future citizens to possess. And yet in the U.S., Canada and Europe, play is disappearing from the lives of too many children. The reasons are complicated, but a lot of it has to do with the pressure governments feel to equip future workers to compete in a changing world.

Among other factors, standardized testing both arises from this pressure and intensifies it. Guy Roberts-Holmes and Peter Moss鈥檚 2021 book 鈥溾�� argues that our economic system reduces early childhood to 鈥渢he status of becoming, to being a transition stage en route to an ultimate destination of achieved adulthood by which time she or he will have assumed the requisite identity: a self-mastering, self-interested and responsibilised subject; and informed and calculating consumer; and [quoting ] a 鈥榬esilient, compliant, skilled worker able to grow the nation鈥檚 wealth.鈥欌��

The authors contend that thanks to this trend, called 鈥榮choolification鈥� in Europe, 鈥淓arly years education is at high risk of becoming a narrow and arid, utterly predictable undertaking, devoid of creativity, excitement, wonder and joy.鈥�

(Brookings Institution)

Hirsh-Pasek points out that before there was an International Day of Play, there was UNESCO鈥檚 global , which advocates for 鈥渁 transformative reform of education and a paradigm shift to put happiness at the core of education policy and practice,鈥� recognizing happiness 鈥渁s both a means to and a goal of quality learning.鈥�

鈥淭he science is clear,鈥� Hirsh-Pasek summarizes. 鈥淟earning needs to be active, engaging, meaningful, socially interactive, iterative and joyful. And if we could rekindle these qualities in ourselves, I think we would see what it would do for our children, their academic health, their social health and their mental health.鈥�

In the book鈥檚 foreword, Steven Seidel of the Harvard Graduate School of Education describes studios as 鈥渟paces where minds can and must pursue their thoughts without censorship or shame, where there is time for looking, listening and freedom of expression, and where there is commitment to go deeper into 鈥� questions of creativity, imagination, expressivity and research.鈥� He continues, 鈥淲hen I first visited Reggio and saw the schools for myself, I thought that this was the closest I鈥檇 ever been to an avant-garde movement in education.鈥�

Another essay in this book, Barbara Burrington鈥檚 鈥淢elting Geography: Reggio Emilia, Memories and Place,鈥� describes the formation of an atelier at the in 1999. An atelier, she writes, 鈥渋s not only about the arts. Nor is it about something in addition to the work we do in the classroom. Rather, it is about linking the experience of teachers鈥� lives with the children鈥檚 lives and waking up together in the world of a new geography.鈥�

I caught up with Burrington to find out more about her studio experience. She cautioned me that while the atelier arose in Reggio, Italy, those who draw inspiration from the concept must not be afraid to incorporate their own cultures. Otherwise, she said, it鈥檚 trying to plant an olive tree in Vermont. 鈥淵ou’re probably not going to get a good crop.鈥�

Researching the concept of the studio, I consulted other sources and spoke to additional practitioners besides Burrington. Based on what I gathered, here are five key ingredients for a dynamic early learning atelier.

A space. Burrington recommends 鈥渁 dedicated space for longer-term, cross-age explorations鈥� but adds that it doesn鈥檛 take a big budget. In Vermont, they repurposed their staff room, and the greatest expense was shelving. The right space will also support documentation, a key concept in Reggio.

Ben Mardell, who recently left a decades-long career with , where he helped develop the resources, now runs the atelier at in Boston. He calls the atelier 鈥渁 center for kids to learn about specific topics, but also a place for adults to learn about kids’ thinking.鈥� He credits Reggio鈥檚 leaders for referring to infants as 鈥渟cientists with hypotheses.鈥�

(Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research)

Materials. Brenda Fyfe, dean and professor emeritus at the Webster University School of Education聽says the studios of Reggio Emilia schools have 鈥渁ll these wonderful, rich materials for children to explore, which could be paper and paint and brushes and pencils of all kinds and soft materials and rocks or assorted things that they can use in their constructions.鈥�

refers to 鈥渕aterials and media as languages for expression and learning.鈥� (Indeed, the approach鈥檚 use of the word language harks back to the 鈥渂ible鈥� of Reggio, ). While working for the LEGO Foundation, designer, educator and play researcher collaborated with the on the design of , an atelier for exploring play, technology and learning. His latest project, , engages children and families in creative learning with sustainable energy.

An 鈥渁rtist.鈥� Also known as an 鈥渁telierista,鈥� this educator is often trained in the visual arts, with the goal of facilitating what calls 鈥渁 new kind of dialogue.鈥� In the chapter of 鈥淭he Hundred Languages of Children鈥� that deals with the atelier, Vea Vecchi (one of Reggio鈥檚 original atelieristas) speaks of 鈥渢he visual language as a means of inquiry and investigation of the world, to build bridges and relationships between different experiences and languages.鈥� She describes the atelierista鈥檚 job this way: 鈥渃reating situations within which creative processes can be experimented with, grow and evolve.鈥�

Burrington notes, however, that the atelelierista doesn鈥檛 have to be a professional artist. 鈥淵ou do need people who have the knowledge of those materials,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat might mean taking some of your part-time teachers and creating a full-time system for staffing that space. Or you might invest in professional development so that all of your teachers have knowledge of how to use different media.鈥� Her atelier in Vermont benefited from a teacher who was good at sewing. 鈥淪he started using fabric as a medium with children,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淭he children drew monsters. Those monsters became patterns. Those patterns became pillows that were hand sewn in the studio.鈥�

聽(Reggio-Inspired Network of Minnesota)

Creativity. Vecchi writes, 鈥淎bove all, the atelier brings the strength and joy of the unexpected and the uncommon to the process of learning. It supports a conceptual change that comes from looking through a poetic lens at everyday reality.鈥� Burrington describes a long-term project dealing with the subject of memory, which sparked in-depth conversations influenced by the work of photographer .

In 鈥淪pirit of the Studio,鈥澛�Pauline Baker writes, 鈥淭hrough interactions in the studio, a growing relationship develops between the child and materials, and this encourages children to invent, think, to problem-solve, to strategize, to create and to wonder about themselves and the world around them.鈥�

(Research and Play)

Community. Partly because they had a limited budget, Burrington and her colleagues engaged parents and the community to collect materials and build the space. This process not only saved money. It also engaged adults in the creation of the studio and helped them feel invested in its success.

In addition, she invited artists from the community to take part in activities. A local stained-glass artist, for example, guided five-year-olds as they put on special gloves and used tweezers and glue. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, Burrington, her colleagues and the children in their school began a community mural project that, she says, 鈥済ave the studio a soul.鈥�

Just as a collage comprises humble, disparate materials that add up to something new, the studio can give rise to unexpected connections and discoveries. In 鈥淪pirit of the Studio,鈥� Charles Schwall writes, 鈥淲hen the atelier, as well as all our school environments, are continually developed and used in purposeful ways, they transform our everyday life in school into a living manifestation of the richness of children鈥檚 potential.鈥�

This commitment is not a new impulse for KABOOM! but rather one that reaches back to 1995, when founder Darell Hammond read a Washington Post story about two D.C. children who couldn鈥檛 find anywhere to play and subsequently died from heat exhaustion in an abandoned car.

Here鈥檚 what I learned when I spoke to Drustva Delgadillo, senior director of partnership development, Sally Dorman, director of regional partnerships and Kevin Paul, associate director of thought leadership about how they are scaling impact and partnering with municipal systems across the country:

A daily allowance of play. call for 180 minutes of physical play seven days a week. 鈥淲hat we really need to do is bring back play for children,鈥� said Dr. Juana Willumsen, WHO focal point for childhood obesity and physical activity.

And the American Academy of Pediatrics , noting, 鈥淐hildren play harder outdoors than indoors and they need daily opportunities to do so鈥�. Playing outside promotes curiosity, creativity and critical thinking.鈥�

Delgadillo, the mother of two young children, agrees, noting that child care providers need to provide play spaces in order to receive their quality ratings. 鈥淛ust walking children to an open space isn鈥檛 enough,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat’s the need that we are trying to address.鈥�

Historical inequity interferes with today鈥檚 play. Research by KABOOM! shows that lower socioeconomic status, racial and ethnic minority and rural populations have limited access in neighborhoods compared to wealthier, white and urban groups. It鈥檚 important to acknowledge that Playspace Inequity didn鈥檛 just happen. Tug on the thread of playgrounds and you get to all these other issues that communities can’t thrive because of historic and institutional racism and other factors.

According to Paul, housing policy, redlining and segregation all contribute to the problem. 鈥淲e also see surrounding physical and social conditions, as well as issues like limited access to transportation, personal safety concerns and lack of inclusive programming,鈥� he says, adding, 鈥淚f we want to make an impact, if we actually want to create a difference for kids, we’re going to have to work at that systems level, because that’s where the problems originated.鈥�

Data and play are not opposites. KABOOM! has gotten sophisticated about play. To evaluate the 16 playgrounds built with funding from the William Penn Foundation for the Play Everywhere Philly Challenge, involved geospatial mapping and analysis of neighborhood context; Environmental Assessment of Public Recreation Spaces; System for Observing Play and Leisure Activity observations; and on-site surveys of adult, English-speaking visitors.

Sean Perkins, chief of early childhood education at the Office of Children and Families, says, 鈥淧hiladelphia, under the Kennedy administration, has clearly prioritized investing in its families, particularly its youngest children. The Office of Children and Families is excited to continue its partnership with KABOOM! to identify areas of the city that most need playful learning environments by both meeting with residents and using available data.鈥� Dorman praises the Office of Children and Families for their holistic approach and also mentions the work of in addressing inequities through development of parks and recreation centers.

KABOOM! also collaborated with Child Care Aware of America and Vanguard to create a story map capturing Philadelphia鈥檚 landscape of play space inequity for kids ages zero to six. In addition to sophisticated mapping, the project included survey data from child care providers and other community members.

A has zeroed in on play in rural communities, generating data that advocates use to push for expanding the tax base to generate more public investment in play spaces.

There鈥檚 more to play than playgrounds. The KABOOM! team embraces what Dorman calls a 鈥渧ision for place-based equity that’s focused on everywhere kids live, learn and play,鈥� which means parks, schools, libraries, child care centers and beyond.

Moving slowly is a feature of their approach, she says. 鈥淲e typically start with assessment work to understand where the gaps exist currently, and then from there we engage community members, city leaders and partners who are already doing this work. We ask them, 鈥榃hat is the data showing? Is this data accurate? What do you see as barriers or challenges that are perpetuating place-based inequity in your cities and communities? What do you see as potential solutions?鈥欌��

Paul notes that they especially value 鈥渇olks who have been in neighborhoods for generations; they’re the experts in their community and their block.鈥� They also ask children what they want in a playground鈥攁nd listen to the answers.

There鈥檚 more to playgrounds than play. All the data gathering and community surveys takes a lot more effort than just pulling up to an empty lot and unloading the equipment. That time is an essential part of their approach. 鈥淭he more we can involve community in all this, the better,鈥� says Paul. 鈥淚f you come in with a fully baked solution, something that has just sort of popped out of the box, then there’s not as much sense of collective ownership.鈥�

KABOOM! is and always will be known for building playgrounds, and over the years the organization has gained an appreciation of what these spaces mean to people of all ages. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e important for kids and families,鈥� says Delgadillo, 鈥渂ut they also play a role in building community as a whole and making communities safer and more welcoming, more beautiful.鈥�

This belief is rooted in the Italian city of Reggio Emilia and with which it shares a name. Harris MacKay and Karlsen are among the thousands of educators who have come from all over the world to absorb the methods pioneered by Loris Malaguzzi (1920-94). The experience helped the Reggio-inspired Opal School, which served children ages 3-11, and the Portland Children鈥檚 Museum to jointly emblematize the play, playful learning and playful research that engage young minds in ways that standard U.S.-based pedagogies generally miss out on. These two institutions both closed in June of 2021, falling victim to pandemic financial woes, but their spirit lives on in the Center for Playful Inquiry.

鈥淭he mission of the school,鈥� says Harris MacKay, 鈥渨as not to serve that tiny group of lucky children who won the [charter school] lottery but to become a site of research that was intended to provoke fresh ideas where creativity, imagination and the wonder of learning thrive.鈥�

The Reggio-Emilia approach, Karlsen notes, arose in the years after World War II, when Italian society was asking itself what had happened to make Mussolini鈥檚 rise possible and what could be done to keep it from happening again. 鈥淚t is an anti-fascist pedagogy,鈥� he says, emphasizing that school and society both run on the interaction between people. Is the dynamic top-down, or is the power shared? Do members of the community fear authority, or do they respect each other and gain strength in their solidarity?

Beyond targeting what Harris MacKay calls the false dichotomy between what鈥檚 known as free play and what鈥檚 known as direct instruction, the Center for Playful Inquiry promotes a wholesale reconsideration of the way teachers are trained. 鈥淲e talk about adults not walking too far ahead of children, or not following too far behind them, but really just trying to be right alongside them,鈥� she says.

Educators visited Portland from around the country to observe and draw inspiration from the Opal School. 鈥淏eing based in a school,鈥� Karlsen says, 鈥渕ade things really alive, because children, families and staff were constantly part of this evolving, shifting, surprising, organic experience. We learned a lot from the adults who were visiting, about what kinds of experiences were helpful for them.鈥�

The Opal School鈥檚 program of professional development gave rise to the Center for Playful Inquiry (which organizes presentations, and facilitates conversations, planning and reflection) as well as (an online community for mutual mentorship; also known as the Story Workshop Studio). 鈥淎s we leave the laboratory of the school behind,鈥� says Harris MacKay, 鈥渨e meet up with all kinds of people who bring their own background knowledge or expectation of what professional development is.鈥�

Donna King of in Durham, North Carolina says, 鈥漇o much has been exceptionally enriching about the community and experiences Matt and Susan have created 鈥� they are brilliant facilitators, empathic listeners and incisive thinkers 鈥� visionaries with a repertoire of skills that make everyone they encounter think more deeply and feel more wholeheartedly.鈥�

Three ways the Center for Playful Inquiry continues to draw upon Reggio:

1. Helping people pay attention to their own context. Harris MacKay and Karlsen were inspired by what they experienced in Italy, but the plan never was to establish a 鈥渇ranchise鈥� of Reggio in Oregon. Their vision was always rooted in their own time and place.

鈥淲e were developing some really interesting ideas and some interesting expressions of those ideas,鈥� Karlsen recalls. 鈥淲hen other people came, it wasn’t to say, 鈥榊ou should be doing what we’re doing in Portland, at this little spot in Washington Park, and in a children’s museum, in your spot.鈥� Instead, it was saying, 鈥榃e think this is interesting. What might be the implications to your space?鈥�”

2. Giving educators permission to find their own path. Just as Karlsen and Harris MacKay didn鈥檛 set out to copy Reggio, they don鈥檛 try to impose a specific method on educators. The experience contrasts starkly with the standard operating procedure for this kind of enterprise, which Karlsen derides as I’m going to show you how to use this binder. And as long as you use this binder, it’s going to work for you and the children that you’re working with.

To capture the dynamic to which they aspire, he makes two comparisons 鈥� one, in rock music, to the Velvet Underground (whose debut album came out in 1967); and two, in the culinary arts, to Alice Waters of Chez Panisse (which opened in 1971). In both cases, the influence is vast, but neither icon inspired mere replication. Instead, bands followed the Velvet Underground into sonic and lyrical experimentation, and chefs followed Waters into reimagined ways of preparing and serving fresh ingredients.

3. Drawing strength from reimagining the ways adults interact with each other. Early education isn鈥檛 all about children. Equally important is how adults work with their colleagues and with parents. Adults, whether or not they鈥檙e officially teachers or not, need to develop their capacity for listening and interpreting what children care most about, and then trying to connect there.

Harris MacKay notes that many of the adults in the profession have not been invited to see themselves as learners, which influences the way that they, then, see children as learners. 鈥淭eachers are integral to the experience that children are having,鈥� she asserts. They’re never invisible to the children.鈥�

For Reggio veterans and novices alike, the Center for Playful Inquiry is teaming up with author and literacy expert for .

Deep and long-lasting change can take time. Harris Mackay says too many teachers have the mindset that as long as they do what they’ve been trained to do just right, then the children will learn. 鈥淭hat’s just not the way human learning works,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t’s a slow, gentle process, playing in a lot of different ways, intellectually, with materials and with each other.鈥�

Ankita Chachra, senior fellow at Capita, recently posted an essay, , describing how her dual journeys as an urban planner and a new mother reinforce each other: 鈥淲ith an urgent, selfish and personal interest in securing a safe future for my child and his future friends, I decided to commit myself to climate action at the intersection of early years and the built environment.鈥�

Early Learning Nation magazine spoke to Gill and Chachra about the potential they see for playful cities.

Mark Swartz: We鈥檙e going to talk about playgrounds, of course, but for both of you, there鈥檚 so much more to making our cities better for young children. What鈥檚 the best way for urban planners to tune into what their youngest residents need?

Tim Gill: The way I鈥檓 going to take that question is: How do we get urban planners and senior decision makers to care about children? I think it鈥檚 a moral issue. , we have to stop designing cities for people who are 30 years old and athletic and male. Caring about children helps us tackle cities鈥� long-term future, economic as well as environmental. If your city is not attracting and retaining families with children, then its long-term economic future is pretty bleak, because the demographics are against you.

Ankita Chachra: A city that works well for young children and families inherently works well for everyone. There needs to be a shift in perspective on who and what the city is for. What if we centered designing cities around care and caregiving? What if cities prioritized intergenerational social connections where young children and families can flourish?

Planners and city shapers must also recognize that children, caregivers and families navigate and use the city differently than a typical office-commuting-able-male adult. Proximity to services, ease of mobility (walking, biking, transit), and access to green and public spaces are foundational for building child-friendly cities. And lastly, it is essential to involve children and families in the decision-making to understand their needs better.

In the context of the United States, urban planning has had a history of segregation and redlining; thus, as practitioners move forward with working in communities where their needs haven鈥檛 been met for so many years, they must always seek to do with, not merely do for.

Gill: I鈥檓 a big fan of the bottom-up schemes that reclaim streets. Here in the UK, promotes resident-led, short-term road closures to let the kids come out and play. The model is regular, fairly unstructured block parties, and people experience what the street is like without traffic.

Chachra: That reminds me of awhere there was a small parking lot with garbage bins. We turned it into a plaza, painting the streets and adding some fake grass, and the children started playing there right away. I remember one little boy just running around, shouting, 鈥淧layground, playground.鈥� And it wasn鈥檛 even close to a playground, but the families had such joy in realizing their children could actually play right in front of their eyes.

Gill: In my book, I talk about how , in Colorado, brought young people鈥檚 voices into a debate about a downtown public space and counteracted the commercial interests that were pushing in other directions. That helped the city to build a more progressive and better collective solution.

Chachra: Growing Up Boulder鈥檚 has done some exceptional work, and including them in some of the planning decisions and having them go to the planning offices and work with the planners. That鈥檚 community engagement done the right way. It鈥檚 not tokenism.

Swartz: By spreading the word about these approaches, Urban Playground is influencing a new generation of urban planners, Tim.

Gill: It鈥檚 been encouraging to see city leaders joining the dots between children and the climate. Two of the most inspiring examples are Tirana, Albania; and Bratislava, Slovakia.

Chachra: Another question we need to ask is: How are we creating spaces for unexpected interactions between neighbors to happen? has looked at the street dimensions, the distance between the two streets and the number of interactions that happen between neighbors. A lot of it comes down to not driving. You鈥檙e very isolated when you鈥檙e just driving. Historically, playgrounds or dedicated places to play for children only emerged after we started prioritizing streets for cars over people and public life.

Swartz: I knew we鈥檇 get to playgrounds eventually. Now that you live in Brooklyn and have a baby of your own, Ankita, what issues are coming to the fore for you?

Chachra: I wish we were doing better from a physical infrastructure and access to green space perspective. There are a few destination parks and places like the Brooklyn Bridge Park, which offer some incredible opportunities for children and families to play and enjoy public life but those are limited and unique. In general, where families have access to parks, it鈥檚 mostly asphalt and concrete, with very few natural softscapes with grass or turf. In most playgrounds, it鈥檚 the same cookie-cutter infrastructure instead of a variety of play equipment that encourages imagination, learning and positive risk taking. That equipment is often designed for two years and older, so there鈥檚 also that missing amenity for really young children just starting to crawl and learning to engage with their environment.

Gill: The American Journal of Preventive Medicine just published a study by Meghan Talarowski and others on . They found that location is critical. If you鈥檝e got a playground in the right place with a good local catchment (a local population that surrounds a service like a school or park), you can have six times as many users as a playground that isn鈥檛 in a dense area with a good catchment within half a mile. The second thing is trees and greenery, which is a factor that doubles the levels of use.

Chachra: Access to green space is a big question. Of course, the catchment area is extremely important, but also, where does it sit within the city? For example, three playgrounds within walking distance of where I am right now are adjacent to highways. If we鈥檙e talking about children鈥檚 health and reducing exposure to bad air, especially in this era of changing climate with recurring days with hazardous air quality, the location of playgrounds near highways, that increase children鈥檚 daily exposure to poor air should be a non-starter.

Swartz: What else are you noticing about New York City?

Chachra: I won鈥檛 go into social programs and policy but will speak purely from the infrastructure perspective. While New York is walkable and has relatively good public infrastructure, it can still feel harsh and uninviting for young children. There鈥檚 been progress, but there鈥檚 a long way to go in making our streets and intersections safe and more child friendly. Streets where you can let your children play as if it were your front yard, or let your newly walking toddler roam free and know that your child is safe riding their bike from home to a neighboring park.

Sidewalks in many neighborhoods still lack shade and seating or in general, opportunities to pause and rest, which is essential when you are moving around with young children or the elderly. If streets are not safe and comfortable for everyone, and if they don鈥檛 feel inviting, then we are losing that opportunity to create a truly child-friendly city.

Swartz: What larger trends do you see affecting the way we live in cities?

Gill: One change we have definitely seen here in the UK 鈥� and I think it鈥檚 true in many other countries 鈥� is a decrease in workers going into city centers to work. So they鈥檙e working from home more or their jobs have shifted. And so that鈥檚 led to a kind of drop in demand and economic activity of various kinds in city centers.

This has led to a rise in economic activities in more peripheral areas, which, for me, relates to the idea of . Simply living locally, traveling more locally, focusing on local amenities and green space, reducing the dependence on the car鈥攁ll those things help make neighborhoods better for children.

The cofounder and executive director of Chicago nonprofit VOCEL, which stands for Viewing Our Children as Emerging Leaders, thinks of her role as 鈥渄emocratizing brain science,鈥� explaining, 鈥淲e see ourselves as a go-between between everyday families and academic centers like the and .鈥�

Sure, play is fun, and ample evidence demonstrates that it鈥檚 a key to how young children learn, but can it also address economic and social inequities? Building upon the investigations of Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Roberta Golinkoff, Helen Shwe Hadani and others, a contends that because play builds up assets like self-regulation and motivation, it increases children鈥檚 agency, which, in turn, 鈥渕akes it possible for the child to own and guide their own train of thought.鈥�

Baker and her co-authors continue, 鈥淲hile agency does entail self-reflection in thought and self-determination in action, the scope of these can extend to a wider community and is, therefore, consistent with collectivist values.鈥�

If that all sounds overly abstract or ambitious, consider VOCEL鈥檚 story, which began 10 years ago with a visit to the . 鈥淭his was a preschool where children鈥檚 voices were meant to be heard,鈥� recalls Ilhardt. Signs in the hallway read, “No shh zone.” The children walked not in lines but in clusters, in order to encourage, rather than curtail, conversation.

Inspired by what she鈥檇 seen in Atlanta, Ilhardt and her cofounder Kelly Powers launched a full-day, year-round nonprofit preschool in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago () and ran it on the principles of play-based learning and putting children in control of their education. Soon, it became apparent that the students鈥� learning correlated with assets that weren鈥檛 accessible to Austin鈥檚 families. 鈥淚 remember recommending a 鈥榤ommy and me鈥� music class and hearing, 鈥楾hey have those out in the suburbs, but they don’t have them here.鈥� That was one of those light bulb moments for us.鈥�

As VOCEL launched its own housed within neighborhood elementary schools, the organization received feedback that Ilhardt has never forgotten. 鈥淚 love the model,鈥� said one school principal, 鈥渂ut, no offense to you, I don’t want your people to lead it. I want someone from my community.鈥� This exchange fueled a budding co-creation stance that has persisted to this day and has become central to VOCEL鈥檚 approach. It has proven valuable as Chicago ramped up early education through the public schools. VOCEL鈥檚 preschool closed, but the academies proliferated. By next year, there will be 24 across the Windy City. Parents and caregivers share their experiences, driving content of the academies, which Ilhardt describes as judgment-free communities, with VOCEL staff supplying research-proven approaches.

Ilhardt鈥檚 talent for explaining young minds has led to a new and impactful shift for VOCEL. Public school principals, many who had early learning thrust upon them when Chicago implemented its pre-K initiative, found themselves out of their element. They often resorted to methodologies that apply to older grades, and Ilhardt started getting calls from parents, who said things like, 鈥淵ou taught me it was all about play and nurture and conversation, and now my child is getting worksheets, flashcards and timeouts.鈥�

Upon inquiring with principals at VOCEL鈥檚 partner schools, Ilhardt heard principals admit that they didn鈥檛 know much about early learning. One even blurted out, 鈥淚’m scared of the littles.鈥� Her VOCEL team sought to fill the gap with a coaching and training fellowship for principals and assistant principals. School leaders, she says, are reconsidering schoolwide attitudes about behavior, intervention, discipline and environments conducive to learning at every age. Ilhardt and her team impart developmentally appropriate practices to school leaders in a position to strengthen their early learning programs and smooth the transition from the early years to kindergarten and even the upper grades.

Joyce Pae, principal at The Chicago Academy elementary school, recently went through VOCEL’s Building Early Learning Leaders (BELL) fellowship. She says, 鈥淭hese past few years have been particularly challenging for our littlest learners to our biggest, and one big takeaway I had from BELL was on the importance of co-regulation and focusing on the social and emotional well-being of our children. Our partnership with VOCEL has taught me so much about early childhood and building a strong foundation for our students to succeed.鈥�

Ilhardt notes that public schools in Chicago, like many organizations, have been undergoing a high level of turnover ever since the pandemic started, so it鈥檚 important to maintain relationships and continually refresh knowledge about early education as the makeup of schools鈥� leadership teams evolve. VOCEL customizes their approach to each school, allowing for flexibility.

Throughout the transition from a brick-and-mortar care center to the launch of parent-child academies, to the implementation of the fellowship for principals鈥攁nd, even more recently, a fellowship for teachers, Ilhardt says her organization has stayed perpetually open to change. 鈥淚t’s a muscle that definitely needs to be worked,鈥� she says.

Dr. Sharon Carver, who has been running the Children鈥檚 School since 1993, did not just chuckle and tape the request to the refrigerator. 鈥淲e ordered the stuff they asked for,鈥� she says.

The wheelbarrows arrived, and there was another problem: they were not assembled.

In most places, staff might get out the tools and read the instructions for assembly while the children played, but that鈥檚 not how it works here. 鈥淭hey immediately understood that they were responsible for putting their own wheelbarrows together,鈥� Carver says. 鈥淭hey couldn鈥檛 necessarily do it entirely themselves, but they did what they could and asked for help with the parts they couldn鈥檛.鈥�

Once the wheelbarrows were put together, the children encountered yet another obstacle. There were different levels on the playground, and the wheels of the wheelbarrows weren鈥檛 big enough to get up and down.

So they built ramps.

That鈥檚 just how they roll at the Children鈥檚 School. Guided by highly trained educators and supported by design choices, the play here is pragmatic. Carver, who admits that she gets bored easily, likes it when the children surprise her with new ideas and projects.

Demographically, the Children鈥檚 School is a mirror of Pittsburgh as a whole, with about 30% multilingual, the full range of income levels and 15% having special needs. The school arose in 1968, the same year as another Pittsburgh institution, the long-running TV show Mister Rogers鈥� Neighborhood. Like Fred Rogers, founder Ann Baldwin Taylor built upon the influence of John Dewey (1859-1952), who famously wrote, 鈥淕ive the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.鈥� Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980), who declared, 鈥淧lay is the work of children,” was another inspiration.

According to Carver, Taylor and Rogers were part of a generation trying to understand and respect children for who they are and the way that they think. Everyone here makes mistakes, deals with it, asks for help and tries all over again.

Many of the lessons Carver uses from Rogers come from by Gregg Behr and Ryan Rydzewski. The authors show how his principles have been proven effective by learning sciences research and in in varied contexts for learners of all ages.

Around the world, she notes, young children do things like tending livestock, chopping wood and washing clothes, but in many parts of America, they have none of these responsibilities, and as a result, play and learning fall into different, artificial categories, with work being something that awaits in the distant future.

Carver says, 鈥淲hen we give them the skills, they’re actually capable of doing a lot more than you鈥檇 think. What you should do when you’re four is going to depend on what you did when you were three.鈥� Rogers, she notes, loved to show children how things are done and made. Famously, he took his young audience on tours of farms, factories and restaurants. Besides landscaping, children at the Children鈥檚 School get involved with activities like cooking and woodworking. The curriculum conforms to individual interest.

As a laboratory school 鈥� 鈥攖he Children鈥檚 School has a second, equal responsibility to facilitate research into child development. Carnegie Mellon psychology, computer science, and robotics researchers and students, sometimes in conjunction with the , observe the children and set up experiments and experiences. Carver refers to the school as a 鈥渟andbox鈥� where undergraduates and graduates get to 鈥渕ess around before going out into the world.鈥�

A recent project investigated how children interact with marble mazes. 鈥淭hese are computer science students,鈥� says Carver. 鈥淢any know nothing about children.鈥� In September, they observed the school, and they returned in November with their prototypes involving chutes and various gizmos for controlling the marbles. It was immediately apparent which projects engaged the children and which didn鈥檛. 鈥淐hildren vote with their feet,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty easy to tell if they鈥檙e engaged or not.鈥� Students in a Music Entrepreneurship course collaborated with children with an interactive workshop inspired by an exhibition celebrating author and illustrator Mo Willems.

鈥淲e take the same approach with staff development as we do with the children,鈥� she adds. When they experience the joy and power of such learning at their own level guided by their own interests, they are better able to design similar opportunities for the children. To that end, educators will soon take a trip to Pittsburgh鈥檚 , an 鈥渋mmersive work environment鈥� where new products are designed.

鈥淲e have no idea what鈥檚 going to happen,鈥� enthuses Carver. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what makes it play. Whatever we鈥檙e doing, all of us are approaching it playfully, within the structure of the activity.鈥�

With the lines between work, play and learning permeable, the experience is always unpredictable, which is something the children, the educators and Carver herself appreciate.

On a tiny triangular lot in the city鈥檚 Belmont neighborhood, kids with their parents for the No. 40 bus can also work on their executive functioning skills, playing a hopscotch variation designed to train their brains.

In Chicago, a mounted on the wall of a laundromat teaches children, in two languages, how to find color patterns in a lineup of detergent bottle tops.

And in Santa Ana, Calif., a basketball court doubles as a giant, real-time .

These are three examples of an unusual model of on-the-fly learning mixed with urban design, one that has emerged from decades of research on the role of play in kids鈥� lives.

The installations, overseen by the Philadelphia-based , come compliments of a unique team of researchers, educators and urban planners who are exploring how cities can support the learning kids do in school. In the process, they鈥檙e experimenting with how to turn ordinary adult-child interactions into opportunities to lift even the neediest kids 鈥� especially those whose parents can鈥檛 afford expensive afterschool and weekend activities.

鈥淲e’re trying to layer on to places and spaces where kids and families already spend time,鈥� said , a developmental psychologist and Playful Learning鈥檚 executive director. For instance, if a mother and child are already at the grocery store, the network greets them with that encourages conversations around sorting different kinds of produce.

Likewise, the installations don鈥檛 demand a lot from adults 鈥� in fact, they often offer a place to rest and recharge while kids take the initiative.

Preliminary research on the effort is promising, with pointing to the efficacy of the approach. The supermarket project, for instance, addresses a problem that besets low-income families: these parents talk informally with their children less often than middle-class parents do. And even when they do, the conversations tend to be shorter. The supermarket project significantly increased both the frequency and length of those conversations, especially among low-income families, showed. Adults were nearly four times as likely to chat with their kids if a store had the signage, bringing their level of conversation up to that of middle-class parents.

Philadelphia鈥檚 bus stop installation, designed by architect and known as the , offers several ways for children to play, among them an original twist on hopscotch: When they see one foot on a tile, they put two feet down, and vice versa when they see two. This game of opposites, Lytle said, works kids鈥� executive functioning skills, 鈥渨hich we know is really important for all kinds of later development.鈥�

In the laundromat, an eye-level matching game offers children a chance to place plastic laundry bottle caps according to prescribed patterns 鈥� as with the Philly bus stop installation, Lytle said, to keep the learning playful, kids need to be in control.

鈥淎n adult might set up the environment for a child, but an important piece of it is that the learning is always directed by the child.鈥�

Education in 鈥榮urround-sound鈥� 

Playful learning advocates are quick to emphasize that these interventions are limited, not meant to replace school but support it.

鈥淭he reality is that kids, particularly in their earliest years, only spend about 20% of their waking hours in those formal learning environments,鈥� said Lytle. 鈥淎nd so the idea is: How can we capitalize on that other 80%?鈥�

That key question long puzzled a pair of researchers in the Philadelphia area: Temple University鈥檚 and the University of Delaware鈥檚, who have spent nearly 15 years studying the centrality of play and non-school factors in children鈥檚 learning. Much of the bedrock theory for this effort comes from their research.

鈥淲e are increasingly learning that education is a 鈥榮urround-sound鈥� issue,鈥� Hirsh-Pasek said. 鈥淚t’s not an issue that stays behind brick walls, but it seeps out into the community.鈥�

Any effort that aims to educate must do three things, she maintains: It should be culturally aligned with families鈥� backgrounds, follow the science of how children actually learn and measure what matters to families.

Humans learn best, Hirsh-Pasek noted, when we鈥檙e active and engaged, usually with other people. School lessons are typically passive, she said, and not really built around meaningful questions. 鈥淚 mean, frankly, I don’t care if the train is traveling 30 miles an hour and the ball drops off the train. Learning abstract content is important, but we learn more deeply and in ways that 鈥榮tick鈥� when examples are meaningful. We can do better.鈥�

When it comes to measurement, Hirsh-Pasek said schools typically don鈥檛 focus enough on what families want most: Good communication skills, creativity, critical thinking and knowing the basics. They want their kids to be able to learn from failure and cultivate what鈥檚 become known as a 鈥済rowth mindset,鈥� persevering in the face of hardship.

Lytle, who oversees Playful Learning work from her office in Seattle, studied with Hirsh-Pasek at Temple in the 2000s. At the time, Hirsh-Pasek was becoming one of the first early childhood researchers to take play seriously, at a time when the larger field of education was focused laser-like on basic skills.

鈥淚t’s something that serious researchers didn’t get into,鈥� Lytle said, 鈥渂ut she thought it was really important. She sometimes says 鈥榩lay鈥� used to be a four letter word.鈥�

The work that followed laid out not only playful learning鈥檚 theoretical framework, but helped researchers see how much kids are learning as they play. 

As with the grocery store signage, on the bus stop installation found that families had longer conversations there than at a neighborhood playground, and that they talked more about STEM topics such as numbers, fractions, patterns and measurement. A found that both caregivers and kids put their phones away while at the site.

But as steeped in delight as it is, the work isn鈥檛 without thorny real-world challenges, as when Lytle recently gave a journalist a tour of Philly鈥檚 Urban Thinkscape, one of the city鈥檚 earliest successes from 2017, and one that serves as a model for how educators and developers can transform formerly neglected stretches of pavement.

The space, in a set of busy crossroads, bristles with wooden-plank walkways and activities like the one-foot/two-foot hopscotch, word and picture puzzles built on protective railings, and a steel sculpture that, at midday, reveals shadows of hidden objects on the ground beneath.

But as Lytle showed a visitor around, a neighborhood man approached and asked if she was there to help with the rats.

Not quite sure how to react, Lytle said she was simply touring the space, but the man persevered, saying the ground beneath the installation was 鈥渇ull of rats. Big rats.鈥�

Matter-of-factly, Lytle replied, 鈥淥.K. That’s good to know.鈥� She suggested contacting an official who oversees the property, adding, 鈥淚 think we’re working on relocating this, actually.鈥�

She later said the network has actually begun encouraging communities to keep repurposing spaces like these as they age. 

An idea goes global

Challenges aside, the Playful Learning idea is starting to spread around the globe.

At the moment, five other cities 鈥� Pittsburgh, Chicago, Santa Ana, Calif., Tel Aviv and Lima, Peru, are in the middle of concerted efforts to create these spaces. Other cities are also dipping their toes into the water, including Omaha and Durham, N.C. 

Mostly foundation-funded, they鈥檙e also affordable in most cases 鈥� the supermarket signage costs about $60 per store. And a few cities are beginning to work the installations鈥� management into their annual budgets, with line items for a playful learning coordinator. In Philly, the effort is largely funded by the , which has invested nearly $13.7 million since 2017. 

The expansions got a boost from a 2020 agreement with the, the renowned Washington, D.C., think tank, which is pushing to so that more cities can join, pairing experts in early education and development with those in urban policy.

Brookings鈥� Jennifer Vey said the installations can have a broader impact beyond improving interactions between kids and parents: They can impact cities鈥� health. Because efforts like these bring families together in public spaces where they feel safe enough to bring their children, 鈥渋t helps strengthen the civic fabric of a place.鈥� And of course it brings potential economic benefits, supporting the small businesses that surround these social spaces.

It can also enrich public schools鈥� offerings, said Rigo Rodriguez, a Santa Ana Unified School board member and professor of Latino public policy at California State University-Long Beach. The school board has long sought a new kind of intervention in a district where about 80% of entering kindergartners are English language learners and one-third of students come from families living below the poverty line.

With the help of Andres S. Bustamante, a University of California-Irvine , the district began repainting elementary school basketball courts to create a game he calls Fraction Ball. In the game, a goal from the traditional three-point line earns just one point, with smaller arcs closer to the basket representing shots worth 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 points on one end of the court, and 1/3 and 2/3 points on the opposite end. Fractions line one side of the court, decimals the other.

鈥淲e want it to be playful and embodied and outdoors and to be more conceptual than procedural,鈥� Bustamante said. 鈥淵ou’re getting an idea of what a fraction means.鈥�

As part of the game鈥檚 debut, researchers tracked student鈥檚 math skills in fourth and fifth grades. They found that Fraction Ball led to 鈥溾�� in children鈥檚 understanding of how to convert decimals to fractions and vice versa 鈥� impressive for an informal intervention that only lasted three weeks, Bustamante said. It encouraged researchers to create an in-class curriculum around the game. 

鈥淭he reality is that kids do have to learn the procedural stuff,鈥� Bustamante said. 鈥淭hey need to know how to find the common denominator and add unlike fractions and all that stuff.鈥�

All the same, the achievement data persuaded the school board to bring the game to all 35 elementary schools, Rodriguez said.

鈥淭here’s a limitation to strategies that just try to reform an educational system, because they depend on people who show up,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t really struck me that what we can do as a district is to support the creation of learning environments across the board, right where every child is.鈥�

Active. When you picture education, do you see students sitting at their desks? Or do you recognize that children, especially young children, learn with their whole bodies? 鈥淭hese aren鈥檛 playgrounds,鈥� insists Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, chief science advisor and co-founder of the Playful Learning Landscapes Action Network (PLLAN). 鈥淭hey鈥檙e deep learning that happens to be fun.鈥�

Jumping, climbing and running engage minds as well as bodies, she says. That鈥檚 why there鈥檚 a climbing wall in the Cecil B. Moore Library in North Philadelphia, one of many collaborations with the nonprofit . As Meghan Talarowski, the studio鈥檚 founder and director, , 鈥淩isky play is the idea of encouraging kids to use their bodies in different ways that are developmentally appropriate for them.鈥� The Playbrary also features tangram cutout reading nooks; colorful, lightweight tangram blocks; and a magnetized board with words and letters where children can express themselves.

Inexpensive. The installations I visited on my tour were creative and colorful, but their budgets were modest 鈥� a mere fraction of what the orb must have cost. Many are fabricated at the maker space, where Jon LuBow of LuBow Design LLC and Katelyn Fletcher 鈥� a postdoctoral fellow with the 鈥� demonstrated a prototype of a pattern game inspired by Dance Dance Revolution as well as a set of story wheels destined for 12 sites throughout Philadelphia.

The story wheels build knowledge of story structure, just as the dance game teaches patterns that feed later STEM skills. 鈥淟ocal artists, designers and fabricators are wonderful to work with,鈥� says Sarah Lytle, Ph.D., executive director of PLLAN. 鈥淭hey bring their creativity to every project and figure out how to turn ideas into reality.鈥�  Local is a related quality. Rather than hiring international luminaries, PLLAN works with abundantly talented Philadelphians.

Low-tech. While NextFab offers some pretty impressive equipment, the overall low-tech vibe rubs off on families. 鈥淭he parents are playing, too,鈥� notes Hirsh-Pasek. 鈥淭hey actually put their cell phones away.鈥�

In the Belmont neighborhood of West Philadelphia, Urban Thinkscape transforms a bus stop into a zone for family discovery. Installations include a bench with puzzles, hopscotch developed to allow children to practice impulse control, icons on a walking path for story creation and a hidden figures sculpture. increases in targeted types of caregiver interaction and child language use.

Lytle and team are developing that families can check out from the library. She鈥檚 also inspired by innovative play concepts emerging from .

Open-ended. The best games don鈥檛 come with rules. Children and families invent their own rules. As , 鈥淐ritically, adults do not tell a child what to do or direct them towards the 鈥榬ight answer鈥� during guided play, but rather adults encourage the child to explore further and find their own solutions.鈥�

Stories drive playful learning games and activities, but these stories don鈥檛 necessarily have beginnings and endings鈥攁s anyone can tell you who has tried to follow a story emerging from a young child鈥檚 imagination. In her NAEYC post titled , Judi Pack writes, 鈥淎 story is powerful and meaningful to families and can often communicate more than a number, a score or a checklist of skills.鈥�

Hirsh-Pasek has spoken and powerfully against the prevailing emphasis on the testing that drains the joy from learning.

Driven by community. Not many community members are likely to walk into a corporate headquarters, but they do go to grocery stores, laundromats and health clinics, and these are the kinds of spaces that PLLAN targets. For example, an interactive mural animates the large waiting room at the clinic, which accommodates 10,000 visits per year. The mural vividly depicts weaving, dancing, embroidery and other aspects of the culture and heritage of the patients. Hundreds of community members took part in painting the mural.

The installation also includes a 濒辞迟别谤铆补 game in four languages selected by community members: English, Spanish, Nahuatl and Q’eqchi’. 鈥淭he project uplifts our community鈥檚 linguistic diversity,鈥� says Orfelina Feliz Payne, the clinic鈥檚 executive director.

Aesthetically, the playful installations I saw on my tour were far more engaging than the gleaming white orb in the office tower, but, more importantly, the science of child development is baked into these designs, which is why they are so effective. As Hirsh-Pasek notes, 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about beautifying. It鈥檚 about learning. It鈥檚 about community.鈥�

Three experts explored ways of letting play and make-believe take the lead.

• , a professor at Temple University and senior fellow at Brookings Institution
• Dr. Denisha Jones, executive director at
• Dr. Deborah Leong, cofounder and president of

The panelists shared practical insights for teachers, parents and caregivers to actively participate in and curate playful learning environments for kids. Here are some takeaways:

1. Play rules. Play in all its forms is beneficial as long as it is done safely, whether the activity is free-for-all or free and guided. 鈥淐hildren learn to play, and they play to learn,鈥� Leong explained, 鈥淧lay has embedded in it the practice children need for self-regulation, persistence and grit.鈥�

Playful learning encompasses the free and guided activities that children regularly participate in, and it is not just for fun. It requires intentionality and adds breadth to what a learning goal can be. In Hirsh-Pasek鈥檚 words, 鈥淧lay is a liberal arts education for children. It embodies all the ways in which we learn that we鈥檝e been studying for over 50 years. It helps make a whole human being.鈥�

Jones urged everyone to think critically about our current educational system, citing, for example, the pressure teachers are under to get children to perform well on standardized assessments. 鈥淲hat is the benefit of all the pressure to read?鈥� Everybody wants what鈥檚 best for their children. They want them to be happy and successful. But we think there鈥檚 only one way to do it and it鈥檚 cramming academics. If we have a generation of kids who can read but don鈥檛 like to read鈥 think that鈥檚 the worst kind of thing. If they don鈥檛 like to read, then what have we done, what is the purpose of all that?鈥�

2. Play sets children free. Leong emphasized that stories and themes that arise in make-believe play become the context for teaching literacy and math. 鈥淭o get to a high level of play,鈥� she said, 鈥測ou need guided interactions and a teacher who can help children develop the agency and autonomy and social skills they need.鈥�

Partnering with schools, teachers and administrators makes it possible to create classroom cultures that put play at the center of learning. Jones currently favors a less-structured educational philosophy out of China called . This approach replaces the traditional play environment by bringing in open-ended, loose parts materials. 鈥淚f we think about freeing children in these different environments,鈥� she said, 鈥渢hen their play will change, it will adapt to the materials that they have.鈥�

Changing the surroundings and materials associated with play can invite new ways of for children鈥檚 learning and creativity to soar. According to Hirsch-Pasek, come about through 鈥渂uilding your environment kind of like a playground or a school, or what you see at a children鈥檚 museum.鈥�

鈥淲hatever it is that you love, curate your environment with those things and let the kids learn about the world by discovering it.鈥�

3. Play is instinctive. How do you guide playful learning experiences? Start thinking like a kid again! 鈥淲e all have to tap into our inner play,鈥� said Jones, urging teachers to 鈥渞emember the complexity and the joy of it.鈥�

When adults wonder, What kind of learning is happening here? whether at the grocery store or a traffic light, they begin to notice the space and kids with a new perspective and responsive attitude.

Leong underscored the power of presence, saying, 鈥淭he great thing about play is that it makes the current moment joyful and wonderful and full of good things for children, and we need to recognize that children live now and they are just not in preparation for tomorrow.鈥�

The magic is in the moment of now, and 鈥淭he magic isn鈥檛 just for the kids,鈥� as Hirsh-Pasek said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 for you too. You will be a better teacher, a better principal, a better parent and a better policymaker.鈥�

On May 6, she gave a virtual talk, Reimagining Education: A View from the Science of Learning, for the University of Maryland鈥檚 听补苍诲听 during which she offered many morsels of knowledge. Here, then, are more than the usual takeaways.

1. The kids will be okay. She started her presentation with the questions she鈥檚 heard a lot in the past 18 months: 鈥淲ill we have an entire generation of social misfits? A generation of children who will never catch up?鈥� Covid has unearthed a lot of angst, and the hand-wringing continues about the long-term consequences. According to Hirsh-Pasek, however, 鈥淜ids are the most resilient things in the universe.鈥� Which doesn鈥檛 mean, she cautioned, there won鈥檛 be more work for a lot of us.

2. This is precisely the opportunity needed to reimagine education. Hirsh-Pasek urged her audience to apply the science of learning to do what it takes for children to thrive in the 21st century. She cited a that summarizes the situation we鈥檙e in: 鈥淭oday鈥檚 students learn very much the way their parents and grandparents did鈥攕itting in rows in front of a teacher who delivers subject content until a bell rings and they shuffle to the next class. That worked in an economy that needed factory and office workers equipped to do rote jobs. But that world no longer exists.鈥� Instead of maintaining the status quo, she said, we need to recognize that 鈥渢he future belongs to creators, empathizers, pattern recognizers, meaning makers, artists, inventors designers and storytellers.鈥�

3. It鈥檚 not about testing. Teachers, parents and students loathe them. Many experts are coming around to the belief that standardized tests fail to gauge the qualities that students need in the 21st century. She lamented the fact that since No Child Left Behind, the early education industry continues to embrace testing, owing to what she called a misinterpretation of the core curriculum. 鈥淲ith testing,鈥� she said, 鈥淔ailure鈥檚 a bad thing. In learning, failure鈥檚 a good thing. Because you dust yourself off and change your approach.鈥�

4. Build relationships. The opposite of testing, said Hirsh-Pasek, and 鈥渢he root of every developmental science model we have,鈥� is the formation of strong, trusting relationships between parents and teachers, kids and parents. Early literacy is a case in point. 鈥淧honics are not the way the brain works,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he brain works through building relationships early on, so that when they do learn the phonics skills, the letter sound corresponds with something they know about.鈥�

5. Play is the way. Hirsh-Pasek enthusiastically cited the work of Pasi Sahlberg, the Finnish-born professor of education policy, now influencing systemic change in Australia, who about her favorite subject: 鈥淚t seems now,鈥� he writes, 鈥渢hat learning through play is becoming a new normal in post-pandemic educational recovery.鈥� She elaborated on the concept of guided play, in which the parent or teacher plays like a peer, asks open-ended questions and complements children鈥檚 action with relevant information. 鈥淓ducation goes beyond the school walls,鈥� she continued. 鈥淚t goes into the communities, and we’re calling it .鈥�

6. Get to know Erika Christakis and Susan Engel. Hirsh-Pasek strongly recommended Christakis鈥檚 The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need from Grownups and Engel鈥檚 The Intellectual Lives of Children .

7. Discover the Six C鈥檚. For Hirsh-Pasek, the recipe for both successful teaching and urgently needed education reform boil down to collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation and confidence. As she and co-author Roberta Golinkoff write in a that came out around the same time as their influential book Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us about Raising Successful Children, 鈥淓ach of these skills is interrelated and builds on one another, continually improving across a person鈥檚 life span. Each is malleable, and each is measureable. Further, each is as adaptable to the classroom as it is to the boardroom. Collectively, they offer a dynamic and systemic way of achieving a new vision of successful education.鈥�

Wilson (1945-2005) is also the namesake of one of the city鈥檚 165 parks, which have proved to be vital 鈥渓ungs鈥� during the COVID pandemic鈥攑laces where families with young children can go and be together in (almost) any weather.

Collaboration drives Pittsburgh鈥檚 thriving early-childhood ecosystem. Gregg Behr, executive director of the Grable Foundation, says, 鈥淚 view our entire community as one big campus, a genuine learning network.鈥� Decades of investment in families, parents and caregivers built resilience and may have cushioned the blow of the pandemic. As in many cities, he notes, the past year has affected different families differently. 鈥淓xperience is hyperlocal,鈥� he says. 鈥淪ome families are doing better than others.鈥�

Although many programs have had to be suspended or postponed, playful learning remains alive and well in Pittsburgh. According to Jen Schnakenberg, assistant director of education at Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy’s Frick Environmental Center, connecting children to nature through play builds gross and fine motor skills and sparks 鈥渦nconstrained imaginative freedom.鈥� Unlike traditional playgrounds with equipment bolted to the ground, this mode derives from 鈥淟oose Parts Play鈥濃�攁 concept originated by British architect Simon Nicholson, , 鈥淚n any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it.鈥� Schnakenberg and her colleagues also encourage children to use sticks and any other handy play materials in their own creative ways.

encourage children and families to take advantage of their local green spaces. Pediatricians, other health care professionals at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and staff at the that operate primarily in low-income neighborhoods, issue these prescriptions, which experts endorse as a way of addressing obesity, depression, ADHD and other conditions that disproportionately affect young children of color.

鈥淎 child might see the doctor once a year,鈥� says Kathryn Hunninen, senior manager of special initiatives at the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. 鈥淭eachers, school nurses and other professionals interact with children more frequently and get to know them and their families.鈥� She says that more than 1,600 prescriptions have been issued so far in doctor鈥檚 offices and over 5,000 people have interacted with the program in community settings since 2016. While it鈥檚 difficult to track the compliance rate, the program is an important way to remind families that the heading outdoors is a part of staying healthy.

Hunninen always feels gratified when families discover nature in their community, whether it鈥檚 down the block or a quick bus ride away. One of her favorite trips was to a nearby state park for hiking and swimming. Another fond memory took place on 鈥渁 gorgeous, 60-degree day in November鈥� when families went on a Story Walk, which involves posting enlarged, laminated pages of children鈥檚 books along a trail, to encourage both exercise and literacy.

鈥淭he children were wearing their little masks,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淎nd they were having so much fun they wouldn鈥檛 go home.鈥�

Behr is looking forward to this May. The series, which comprises virtual, in-person and hybrid coding, inventing and play activities, started in 2016 and now reaches beyond its Pittsburgh origins. Chicago, Oregon, San Diego and the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia metropolitan area are all set to participate.

鈥淭here鈥檚 something for every family,鈥� he promises.

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek (Stanley and Debra Lefkowitz Faculty Fellow in Psychology at Temple University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution), Roberta Golinkoff (Unidel H. Rodney Sharp Professor of Education at the University of Delaware), and Jennifer Vey (senior fellow at the Brookings Institute) served as panelists. Below are our three top takeaways from the conversation.

1. The playbook is alive and will grow over time. The playbook outlines a step-by-step process for embedding learning goals into public spaces where families gather, and includes information on cost, complexity and the scientific principles of play.

The playbook follows two children on the journey of building the 鈥渟ix c鈥檚鈥� skill sets: collaboration, content, critical thinking, communication, creative innovation and confidence.

鈥淪cience tells us that these skills are needed for children to flourish in the future,鈥� Kessler explained. Future expansions of the playbook will incorporate training modules and dive into more details on design elements, community activation, monitoring and evaluation.

2. Playful learning landscapes pair the science of learning and architecture. Playful learning landscapes build on the how of learning. 鈥淜ids learn and develop skills from all kinds of play,鈥� Kessler said, 鈥淏ut they learn best when learning goals are intentionally integrated into play at the start.鈥�

When parents, caregivers or the environment can guide play toward a particular learning goal, they are more successful and children absorb information better. 鈥淪ociety thrives when we craft environments in and out of school that support happy healthy, thinking, caring and social children,鈥� Golinkoff said, 鈥淧layful learning landscapes invite the informal interactions that fuel curiosity and learning.鈥�

3. Community involvement is paramount. 鈥淥ur very first step emphasizes the critical role that community plays in co-design, activation and sustainability,鈥� Kessler said in reference to the playbook. 鈥淲e believe that the community is essential to sustainability and impact.鈥�

This intentionality guarantees that the values, hopes and goals of the project reflect and respect the community members. The is focused on increasing community and partner buy-in.

鈥淲e have a holistic vision where we are bringing economic ecosystems, built environments, social and civic together,鈥� Vey explained, 鈥淲hen we talk about the need for support, by the public sector and others, it means that it has to involve different folks working together to make these projects happen.鈥�

Helen Hadani, dual fellow at the , shared the larger context for this initiative, and then Dr. Brenna Hassinger-Dass, assistant psychology professor at Pace University, and science advisor for , and Jane Park Woo, director of , shared their experiences integrating learning tools and opportunities into public spaces. Below are our top three takeaways from the event.

1. COVID-19 remains a challenge for learning. Hadani presented evidence that transitions out of school and to virtual learning may widen education inequality.

鈥淭here is a widening distribution, with children鈥檚 learning with more children left behind and most of those children are likely to be living in poor areas and marginalized communities,鈥� she explained, 鈥淲ealthier families are better situated to mitigate COVID effects, since they live in more comfortable homes and have better internet connections and resources to pay for tutors. That鈥檚 not the case most of the time for children living in poor areas.鈥�

COVID makes the divide more apparent and adds urgency to the movement to enrich learning opportunities in everyday environments that are accessible to all children and families.

2. Public spaces present learning opportunities. One possible solution is playful learning landscapes. These landscapes provide fun and interactive installations in spaces where families frequent, such as grocery stores, laundromats and public parks.

鈥淭he installations encourage critical connections and the development of skills that allow children from under-resourced neighborhoods to enter school on a more level playing field and continue to thrive in school and beyond,鈥� Hadani explained.

While there is no silver bullet for education inequity, playful learning landscapes offer a powerful solution with a wide range of benefits.

In western countries, kids spend about 20% of their waking time in school and the other 80% in their homes and community settings, but a lot of work to improve academic and other outcomes has been focused on school.

In explaining the work behind this initiative, Hassinger-Dass said, 鈥淲e thought, How can we use everyday places and spaces and transform them into places where we can foster learning and caregiver-child engagement? 鈥�

3. Children and communities benefit from the partnerships and implementation. The playful learning landscapes initiative has developed ways to spur playful learning, physical activity and caregiver-child interaction in everyday places and spaces.

In partnership with communities, the team designs projects that are non-obstructive, attention-catching, intuitive and interactive. The research and implementation of these projects are centered around community members and families and promote their input and involvement at every stage of the process.

鈥淧rojects are a collaboration with the community from the very start,鈥� Hassinger-Dass explained.

Libraries, vacant lots and bus stops are other examples of spaces that have been transformed to promote early learning and interaction. Philadelphia libraries saw an increase in program attendance after a renovation. 鈥淭he programming didn鈥檛 necessarily have to do with play and learn spaces,鈥� Hassinger-Dass clarified.

is another Philadelphia project that yielded positive results. What was once a grassy lot behind a bus stop was transformed into a learning space with various installations, incorporating stories and puzzles, to foster play, literacy and executive function skills.

Too Small to Fail is also focused on meeting families where they are. Describing Too Small to Fail鈥檚 campaign, Park Woo said, 鈥淥n average, children from lower-income families hear millions fewer words than their higher-income counterparts.鈥�

These findings reiterate the critical challenge we are facing but also illuminate opportunities we have in the first few years of life to build children鈥檚 vocabulary and a strong foundation for learning.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just the number of words that children hear, but really it is the quality of the moments that are shared,鈥� she explained. Through partnerships, her team has transformed thousands of spaces to surround families with language, making everyday environments more conducive to learning.

And where鈥檚 the best place for play to happen? The short answer is: anywhere outdoors. Of course, there鈥檚 nothing like a playground to really get the heart pumping and the synapses snapping.

Drustva Delgadillo prescribes two hours of outdoor playtime daily. Director of strategic partnerships for KaBOOM! the national nonprofit devoted to addressing inequitable access to play spaces, Delgadillo views playgrounds as gathering places for the entire community, whether that means toddlers taking their first steps, teens barreling along an American Ninja Warrior-style adventure course or seniors knitting. She says that to bring about the kind of transformation, community engagement in the design and planning process is necessary to ensure community needs are met, 鈥淭he quality of age-appropriate outdoor play spaces has to improve.鈥�

鈥淧lay is how children learn,鈥� she continues. Among the benefits that are especially relevant for young children, she mentions:

• Improving gross motor skills through climbing and sliding
• Brain-building through parent-child interaction (which I鈥檓 pretty sure means the parents have to put their devices away, too)
• Promoting reciprocal play鈥攎ake-believe is always better with a friend
• Building sensory awareness鈥攆or example, through equipment that makes music
• Developing cognitive ability through puzzle manipulation

For Joe Marinucci, CEO of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, playgrounds matter for economic reasons. 鈥淭his is part of keeping families downtown,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 part of making a walkable downtown.鈥� Marinucci activated the young professionals organization is his city to address a playground deficit and attracted philanthropic support from the Joseph H. and Ellen B. Thomas Foundation. A design firm called helped to develop a nautical theme to complement the restored steamship in the harbor. Marinucci has tapped , a local nonprofit dedicated to community-centered design, for a subsequent project.

New York City comptroller Scott Stringer conducted an ambitious citywide survey of the playground landscape in the Big Apple, and last year issued the , which found that its playground-per-capita ratio lags behind Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, St. Louis, and 44 other U.S. cities. Affluent neighborhoods have more鈥攁nd safer鈥攑laygrounds than those that need them most.

I spoke to Adam Forman, Stringer鈥檚 chief policy and data officer, about New York City鈥檚 particular challenges and opportunities. 鈥淐ities change,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut that doesn鈥檛 mean they can鈥檛 plan.鈥� Given the extensive development across the five boroughs, he continued, planners must 鈥渓ook to existing, publicly owned spaces and repurpose them for the local community.鈥� At the same time, cities of all sizes should be receptive to partnerships that make their playgrounds more inviting. For example, Pampers, the diaper company, donated 600 changing stations, making the city鈥檚 parks considerably more baby-friendly.

State of Play calls for a revival of the sort of mid-block playground that came about in the 1960s when Robert F. Kennedy (then a U.S. Senator), architect I. M. Pei, and others put their heads together in the Bed-Stuy Crown Heights neighborhood. Forman notes that in the subsequent half-century, the model has been attempted in other communities, but somewhat haphazardly and 鈥渨ithout intention.鈥�

According to Forman, playgrounds don鈥檛 necessarily have to be expensive, or overbuilt and fussed over. He mentioned the temporary 鈥渁dventure playground on Governor鈥檚 Island,鈥� made up of cardboard boxes, fabric, markers, string, and tape that periodically arises.

Ever since 1996, when Darell Hammond founded KaBOOM! the organization has prioritized community co-creation. (He stepped down in 2016, and James Siegal is now CEO.) Delgadillo describes inviting kids to draw their dream playground. 鈥淭hey say, 鈥榃e need more slides鈥� and presto!鈥攁 three-slide structure arises.鈥�

The children are the experts, but KaBOOM! has developed a slightly more boring but no less essential quality鈥�23 years of permitting and play infrastructure experience鈥攚hich makes it an attractive partner for communities that want to put up a playground but lack the administrative or execution capabilities. Delgadillo says the organization is moving toward addressing play space equity by building parks across communities where the need is the greatest.

鈥淭hat way,鈥� she explains, 鈥淚t鈥檚 more than just a one-off engagement, but has the potential to impact an entire city or system, not to mention the cost savings.鈥� Delgadillo is especially excited about long-term partnerships with NYU Langone Health, the Baltimore City Public Schools (), and the William Penn Foundation and the Playful Learning Landscapes in Philadelphia.

Fundraising is another valuable tool in KaBOOM!鈥檚 toolbox. Philanthropy such as the kind that Marinucci found is just one possibility. Delgadillo recommends the Bipartisan Policy Center鈥檚 for examples of federal-, state-, and local-level models across government, foundation, and public-private partnerships. 鈥淲e wait until the dollars are in place before we engage with a community,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to break our promises.鈥�

That focal point of the piazza has gone missing in much of contemporary American society 鈥� along with the very idea of play as a worthy human activity 鈥� but a new movement is afoot to bring back such public spaces, with a 21^st century twist. What if the everyday places where people spend time 鈥� bus stops, parks, grocery stores and other public areas 鈥� could be transformed into learning hubs in which the design of the place itself organically calls for interaction among caregivers and children? What if those places actually invited play in a highly specific way that could help children develop academic skills and the competencies they鈥檒l need in a rapidly changing future?

An exciting answer to those questions is the (PLL) movement, which fuses the science of learning with architect Itai Palti鈥檚 movement to transform mundane built environments into something more magical. The brilliance of the venture is that its installations manage to cover the scientific bases without looking as though they鈥檙e doing much at all 鈥� just providing a lot of fun with an upgraded version of hopscotch or puzzles on a wall that abuts an ordinary park bench.

鈥淎s we started planning our project, for example, we asked some basic questions,鈥� says early learning scholar and author . 鈥淲e wondered why a bench is 鈥榡ust a bench鈥� and if it has to be just that. Couldn鈥檛 we transform a normal bench? One of the easiest ways to achieve that was to put four different puzzles right next to the bench.鈥�

鈥淚t turns out that when people are playing with puzzles, they are not only discussing things like alignment, but concepts like 鈥榦n, around and through鈥� and asking, 鈥楧oes it match?鈥� 鈥� which all turn out to be spatial terms that relate to later math and STEM ability.鈥�

The serious side of Playful Learning Landscapes is its focus on an urgent need globally to optimize early education in and out of schools. The U.N. reports that by mid-century, more than two-thirds of the world鈥檚 children will be living in urban areas and that most will reach adulthood without even the basic secondary skills required for work in a rapidly changing world. One response to this urgent need has been good progress on creating high-quality universal preschool, a critical step that has been shown to make a difference in school readiness that translates into later successes. However, this solution alone can鈥檛 really remedy the need.

Children typically spend only 20% of their waking time in classrooms. Some societies, including the U.S. to some degree, have tried to optimize that remaining 80% of kid hours by piling on more schoolwork, tutoring and assignments in an effort to give children a head start on academic skills such as reading and math. In this paradigm, play is viewed as superfluous and expendable.

, early learning scholar and Hirsh-Pasek鈥檚 longstanding collaborator, says this elimination of play is a giant step in the wrong direction.

鈥淲e know from the research that children learn the most when they are active, not passive,鈥� Golinkoff says. 鈥淪chools often have little kids sitting for enormous amounts of time, receiving information from above, and that really doesn鈥檛 work. You can throw a phone book at an adult and tell them to memorize the first page and they鈥檒l figure out a way to do that because adult minds have metacognition, which is the ability to push our minds around in service of our goals. Children don鈥檛 have that yet, so we have to make learning exciting and enable them to be active.

鈥淥ne thing psychology has shown us for the past 25 years is that children learn language and learn about the world when they have conversations where they are active participants with caregivers. Whether that鈥檚 a grandparent, a father, a mother, it doesn鈥檛 matter. Kids learn when they have the opportunity to participate in the conversation about things they鈥檙e interested in.鈥�

Golinkoff and Hirsch-Pasek describe themselves as professors and intellectual entrepreneurs who take research out into the world in a way that involves people and doesn鈥檛 just show or tell them information but makes them a part of it. With the , they set about to create installations to captivate children鈥檚 minds in ways that support lifelong learning and great social outcomes 鈥� and they made sure those installations are in the children鈥檚 own neighborhoods.

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 have to travel, they don鈥檛 have to pay money,鈥� Golinkoff says. This is especially important for low-income communities, where research shows the children tend to lag behind more affluent peers in language and spatial skills from a very early age and often have less access to resources and interactions with caring adults that can assist in their development.

鈥淚f I am a parent and I have to worry about my child being safe and being fed, honestly, one of the last things on the list is whether I鈥檓 giving them cognitive stimulation,鈥� Hirsh-Pasek says. 鈥淟ots of kids don鈥檛 have homes filled with puzzles and books, but can鈥檛 we do something to spark those conversations and involve two or maybe three generations in the process?鈥�

The goal of the PLL installations and activities is to move beyond the replication of a 鈥渙ne size fits all鈥� installation to work with communities, businesses, governments and other organizations to create specific projects that incorporate playful learning design and principles into a variety of spaces that fit into the neighborhood. Many of these projects can be quite inexpensive, such as 鈥淪upermarket Speak,鈥� in which the scientists posted funny signs in grocery stores, with questions designed to promote parent-child interaction 鈥� 鈥淒o you know milk comes from a cow? What else comes from a cow?鈥� The researchers observed a 33% increase in parent-child interaction when the signs went up, Hirsh-Pasek says. All for a project cost of $65.

LEGO provided $5,000 for another project, 鈥淧lay Wall,鈥� that involved placing chalkboards in neighborhoods inscribed with the phrase, 鈥淲hen I was little, I played 鈥︹�� and chalk so people could fill in their answers.

鈥淚n two and a half hours, the neighbors had filled up the chalkboard with things they had liked when they were little and the older people were teaching some of the younger kids some of their games,鈥� Hirsh-Pasek says. 鈥淓verybody gathered around those chalkboards.鈥� The project hopes to host an intergenerational event featuring those games.

Key to the success of each installation has been the active participation of community members. In one Philadelphia project, for instance, community members picked a spot where Martin Luther King, Jr. had given one of his first speeches and more than 100 community children helped build the installation. PLL hired neighborhood people who didn鈥檛 have jobs and trained them to be 鈥渄ata ambassadors鈥� who observed and recorded the project鈥檚 impact, following professional, scientific protocols that govern studying human subjects.

The future for most of the world鈥檚 children will be markedly urban. Results from Playful Learning Landscape鈥檚 pilot projects show that with thoughtful design based on careful research, cities themselves can become change agents that captivate children鈥檚 imaginations, foster intellectual and social development, and enhance human interaction just like those familiar piazzas.