I think what I'd like is also unrealistic-- because it involves changing our expectations and dialing things back to a point where kids were allowed to be... well, children.

I think (and have had a lot of primary educators confirm) that the expectations placed on kids now in K-5 are way different than they were forty years ago. We expect children this age to be "self-regulating" and "self-directed" in ways that probably aren't really developmentally appropriate for about half of them.




Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.