At the Aspen Institute Ideas Festival in Colorado, scholars discussed why the word "play" has slipped out of favor. Temple psychologist Kathy Hirsh-Pasek asked, "When did play become a four-letter word?" She said that in the last two decades, children have lost eight hours of free play per week and 30,000 schools have eliminated recess to make time for more academic studies. The problem, says Hirsh-Pasek, is that we see play and learning as opposites, rather than understanding how we learn through play.
