Playful teaching is a little-explored way to reinvigorate secondary classrooms with our vibrant mutual humanity. The author has come to believe not only that the ludic can be harnessed for academic engagement and growth but also that play can infuse the US secondary classroom with the humanity, equality, and democracy it lacks. It all begins with imagining what would happen if students were as alive in the classroom as they are on the playgrounds in their lives, be they practice fields, dance floors, skate parks, or social media applications.