Before all those extracurricular activities and community-service projects listed on college applications, there were play groups, library hours, Pop Warner football games, swimming lessons, ballet, drama, soccer. Not to mention preparation for high-stakes tests mandated by the No Child Left Behind law, or the mounting minutes, even hours, of homework reported by students from elementary school on. Is there any time left for free play? Or are children and teenagers way too overscheduled? The controversy never seems to go away completely, and several big-name scholars and medical groups have now set it off again. This article presents the contrasting views of the psychologist Joseph L. Mahoney and his co-authors, who favor children's participation in organized activities, and both David Elkind, a child psychologist, and a committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who think that today's children are overscheduled, overstressed, and overstimulated.