Working with Deborah Meier, founder of the Central Park East Schools in East Harlem and the Mission Hill School in Boston, the Alliance is developing a national campaign to highlight the need for more creative play and hands-on learning in preschool and kindergarten. Many public kindergarten programs are now almost solely focused on formal instruction, and many preschools are moving in a similar direction. A number are using scripted teaching in which teachers must follow a set script, with prescribed answers to children's questions. Meanwhile, time and materials for open-ended play and exploration are disappearing from early childhood classrooms. Yet creative play and experiential learning are essential elements in how young children learn. A first step in this campaign was the issuance of a Call to Action signed by leading educators, health professionals, and others, and a press release linking the Alliance's Call with an important report on the importance of play issued in October 2006 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

We encourage you to reprint our flier with a description of the campaign and suggestions for action.

If you would like to be involved in the campaign for sound early education in your community, please contact us.