Yes. @JonHaidt @ZachMRausch @harrisPoll & I polled kids 8-12: How do you like to spend time w/ friends? A-Old school hanging out B-Organized activities C-Online Winner: A Loser: C Kids are online by default, not by desire. Adults must step back & OPEN THE DOOR. #LetGrow

Why are kids so overscheduled? We see kids as human capital now. So we invest in them the way companies invest in their employees. Suddenly all the classes make sense: It's not a childhood, it's raw material to be improved for a better outcome. instagram.com/p/Ddg-WuNxZez/

Why is one of @LetGrowOrg's goals to make childhood independence LEGAL??? Erica Schwiegershausen in @NYMag nails it: "Many parents are trying to give their kids more freedom. Their neighbors keep calling the cops." thecut.com/article/helicopte…

In @CityJournal, MI alum @NoraKenney_ reviews a new book on why recess and unstructured play matter. It draws on decades of research showing that recess supports physical health, attention, learning, social development, emotional regulation, creativity, and conflict resultion, per Nora. Judge this book by its great cover: a rubber ball. In the aughts and 2010s, gym class "elimination" games like dodgeball, kickball, and tag were villanized as bullying, traumatic, and "undermin[ing] positive school climate." The CDC discouraged those types of activities. Between 2000 and 2014, schools with required PE that taught dodgeball fell from two-thirds to fewer than half, according to CDC data. Now, social-emotional learning is more likely to come in the form of a branded commercial curricula sold to schools, rather than practiced by kids through free play, competition, and, yes, sometimes getting picked last. Many kids don't get much time to run around at all. Only five states required at least 150 minutes of elementary PE per week as of Dec 2024. Kids can benefit immensely from reccess and play. Give 'em some rubber balls and let 'em smash each other! And if they don't want to spend their time that way, that's fine, too! Unstructured time lets those who don't want to kick around a rubber ball enjoy other activities, too. city-journal.org/article/why…

Study by @YouthRights found more than 1000 malls have banned young people in some capacity.

FUNNY (and beautiful) tribute to the work of @NewYorker cartoonist PC Vey, by @BobEckstein . The Cartoon Flag is Flying at Half-Mast, by @BobEckstein thebob.substack.com/p/the-ca… Lots of cartoons in the piece!

Not sure this post is real. If it is, it's a great illustration of how tracking gives the PROMISE of "peace of mind," but delivers the opposite. There's a reason people say "Ignorance is bliss." We are being fed TOO MUCH GRANULAR INFO about out kids: threads.com/@farrowste/post/…

Let your 11-y.o. take the bus -- by herself -- to Target? A Seattle mom tells her tale! Spoiler alert: EVERYTHING went wrong. letgrow.org/childhood-indepe…

NYC tweeps: A dear reporter friend of mine in his 70s lives on the 6th floor of a bldg where the elevator will be out of svc Oct-Dec. If you know of a place he & his wife could stay, $2000/mo for those 3 months, please DM or email me: Lskenazy at yahoo. Thank you!

This applies to kids too, not just adults studying for a test. A frustrated child who gets five minutes of something absorbing before returning to a task often comes back calmer than one told to "push through." The distraction isn't avoidance — it's a reset.

Help a neighbor out if you know anyone!

In praise of DISTRACTION. Feeling bad? It is NOT a co-op to do something fun or absorbing to take your mind off your woes. Of course you still have to study for the test or look for the job. But for mental health: fun beats wallowing! By @sambmd: drsamanthaboardman.substack.…

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Tonight in NYC the On Point interview airs on WNYC FM at 8 p.m. on 93.9 FM. If you prefer to listen right now -- voila! wbur.org/onpoint/2026/09/16/…