Readers React: Let your kids play. It’s their best shot at becoming caring, empathetic citizens

To the editor: In addition to contributing to academic and social success, play is a pickax against the walls of discrimination and an antidote to social exclusion.

Children with and without intellectual disabilities should play together — like they have for 50 years with the Special Olympics — to break down stereotypes and pave pathways to friendship. Competitive sports give young people a laboratory for maintaining emotional wellness under stress: thinking positive thoughts, releasing stress and connecting with others.

Unified sports and inclusive play improve physical fitness and help people find common ground by improving cooperation and sweeping away preconceptions. Warning: The side effects of radical inclusion are unity, tolerance and respect.

Timothy Shriver, Washington

The writer is chairman of the board of directors for Special Olympics International.

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To the editor: Although I am 76 years old, I still have vivid and joyful memories of my kindergarten year in Brooklyn. I especially remember the playhouse, the painting easel with the huge sheets of paper and the recording of “Peter and the Wolf,” which the teacher played during rest time.

And oh, how I longed to play with the large blocks, but the other kids always got to them first. When I became a teacher and then a parent, I made sure my children had access to them.

Play is children’s work and children’s joy. As one teacher put it recently, the worst thing about reducing play time at school is that many children no longer enjoy school.

Parents, pediatricians and teachers need to unite in bringing research-based play back into the school lives of young children. It’s how they learn.

Linda Mele Johnson, Long Beach

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