Posted by Chris
Most of us past the age of 30 grew up in a world that we mostly explored at will. We were asked (told!) to “go outside and play” with only the requirement that we be back before dark or back before dinner. We explored nearby fields and streams, built things, and learned about our own skill and proclivities. Kids now have much more structured lives, the result being that they miss chances to construct the narrative of their own lives.
Lenore Skenazy, a columnist who once unwittingly unleashed a scandal by letting her 9-year-old son ride on the New York Subway alone, talks about all this in the posted introduction to her book: “Free Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry.”
