On the heels of some wonderful comments from a reader and fellow blogger, Rae Pica, about recess, come powerful new reminders about the importance of play for children from a terrific organization: Alliance for Childhood.

Visit the site and you’ll find what I consider to be a landmark report useful for Arne Duncan and President Obama in helping to foster a balanced conversation about how to raise the bar for American students. It’s called “Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School” (more about this in my next post). Along with this great report, you’ll also find several terrific resources about play, “playwork,” and adventure playgrounds. The site also links to many articles and reports about the importance of play, as well as a PBS film called  “Where Do the Children Play” (available as a DVD) and companion book called A Place for Play.

In my last post, I talked about the importance of structured recess. It’s important to remember, though, that free play on the playground—well supervised for safety, of course—is a significant and important aspect of any good recess program at the elementary level. Children need to exercise their imaginations as well as their bodies. Imaginative play leads to creative problem solving in social situations, to self-regulatory behavior and rule-following behavior in pretending and in made-up games.

And this creative problem-solving happens sometimes more easily through free play than through games such as kickball or soccer with adult–imposed rules. At first glance, you might think the games with adult rules would be easier to follow because they’re clear to us as adults. In children’s free play, however, they often regulate each other’s play, sometimes “bossing” each other around or “being in charge” of certain aspects of a pretend situation. This “other regulation” helps them understand rules without feeling they have “broken” bigger rules imposed by a formal frame or a school rule. Gradually, in a playful way, children learn what rules are for.

Some children gravitate more quickly to formal games and feel more secure there. Some feel safer in imaginary play or free play some of the time. When children can have a choice on the playground, at least some of the time, their play will be instructive for them and for the adults guiding them.

Be sure to check out Alliance for Childhood. With such powerhouse national advisory board members as Sue Brederkamp, Linda Darling-Hammond, David Elkind, Margery Franklin, Kenneth Ginsberg, Roberta Golinkoff, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Deborah Meier, Samuel Meisels, Sharna Olfman, Larry Schweinhart, Dorothy Singer, and Jerome Singer, this organization brings a brilliant developmental perspective to the national stage at an important time in our national educational history.