You've heard adults go on and on about how kids today don't know how to just go out and "play." Play dates, TV and video games have seemingly replaced just playing in the dirt, digging up the yard, making mud pies? OK, so city kids don't have yards where they can do this. But kids in Manhattan will soon get the chance. Story on the front page of the NY Times Wednesday described plans to create a new type of playground where kids can dig in the sand, move it around, play with water and here's the bonus...the playground will have adult play consultants to help the kids learn this strange new concept of open-ended play, driven by imagination.

Here's the key quote: “Very little time is spent by kids in playgrounds if they have a choice,” said Roger Hart, who...is the director of the Children’s Environments Research Group at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. “They limit the repertoire of play to children’s physical activity,” instead of encouraging the kind of social, sensory, interactive and individual fantasy play that children need, Mr. Hart said.

What's going on the playgrounds at school or in the park? Is play part of the curriculum in elementary school? Or, are those scare stories about recess being cancelled for first graders in favor of "drills" really true?