Teachers face a growing call for implementing inquiry-based teaching and learning in a current pedagogical environment that contradicts this through educational practices that silo content, disseminate knowledge, and produce classrooms of passive learners. We address a hot topic in the United States on how a push for more "academics" is changing the landscape of education and driving play and inquiry away from the typical experiences of children in schools, resulting in an educational system disconnected from the needs of the 21st century learner. The authors suggest that when we provide young learners with quality opportunities for success in their earliest learning experiences that support play, a natural form of inquiry where children engage in the process of constructing meaning of their world, children will naturally develop inquiry skills for future learning upon which all teachers can build.