One of the paradoxes of the “great rewiring” of childhood is that the real world has gotten so much safer since the 1990s, while parents have gotten ever more afraid of letting their children out to play and explore in that world.
This is also the paradox behind the documentary Chasing Childhood. Filmmakers Margaret Munzer Loeb and Eden Wurmfeld grew up in New York City in a time when crime rates were vastly higher—and so was the amount of independence children were given. What happened to our ability to trust our kids when they are out and about? What is all this supervision doing to them? And what can we do to restore healthier, happier childhoods—and healthier, happier communities?
Jonathan Haidt talks about The Let Grow Experience (a K-12 homework assignment that asks students to go home and do something new, on their own, with their parents’ permission but without their parents) and the movie Chasing Childhood which will appeal to those parents who are ready to give children back their independence.
Screen the movie here
