Educators need to ensure sufficient time and opportunity for play. They need ongoing professional development to fully engage all children in play and to help other adults and parents understand the role of play in human development, cognition and health. They need to respect, read and pursue research that explains the role of play in academic learning from early childhood to adulthood. Above all, adults—educators, parents, policymakers, community members--need to promise to preserve children’s right to play; they need to interlock their little fingers and, as the children say, ‘pinky swear.’