So true. Over 20 years in the classroom showed me kids are far more capable than we give them credit for. People will rise to the level of your expectations.

Difference is increasingly non-reality-based perceptions of stranger danger, child competence, and "good parent" requirements. No actual changes ( well, crime down).

Cool idea for a podcast: What was happening to KIDS in history? New "History of Childhood" podcast explores this almost uncharted cosmos. Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3twN19… Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…

The Nazi guards never heard the baby crying inside her toolbox. If they had, 2,500 children would have died. In 1942, a 32-year-old Polish social worker named Irena Sendler walked into the Warsaw Ghetto carrying a simple toolbox. She had a permit to check for typhus outbreaks. The guards waved her through. Hidden beneath the wrenches and rags was a six-month-old baby. She walked past armed soldiers and handed the child to a Polish family waiting outside the walls. The next morning she walked back in and did it again. For three years Irena smuggled approximately 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto. She hid infants in toolboxes, sedated children and smuggled them in coffins, concealed them in ambulances under stretchers, and used sewer pipes. Every child received a new Polish name. Irena recorded everything—real names, new names, locations—on tissue paper sealed in glass jars and buried in a friend’s garden. By October 1943 the Gestapo caught her. They tortured her, broke both her legs and both her feet, and beat her unconscious. She gave them nothing. After months they sentenced her to death. The night before her execution, the underground bribed a guard. He led her out and recorded her as “executed.” She went immediately back to work and continued until the war ended. When the war ended she dug up the jars and spent months trying to reunite children with families. Most parents had died in the camps. For decades almost no one knew about her. Then in 1999 four teenage girls in Kansas found a brief mention of a woman who had saved 2,500 children. They researched and wrote a play. At age 89 Irena Sendler became famous. She was honored by Pope John Paul II and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She died in 2008 at age 98. One estimate suggests those 2,500 rescued children produced approximately 6,000 descendants. She was a social worker with a permit and a toolbox. She walked into hell every day for three years and walked out carrying children. The Nazis broke her legs. They couldn’t break her will.

I show people statistics and they refuse to believe crime is down!

. . POLL BELOW: WHAT AGE DO YOU LET YOUR KIDS TRICK OR TREAT UNSUPERVISED?

@VenmoSupport help! @venmo I need to talk to a person because my account was hacked and they locked me out. I can’t use the app because it says my email and phone number are not a recognized account. I’ve been using it for years tho. Swynne@yahoo.com

When you are on an escalator, the rule is: Stand right, walk left. Much like the highway, if you are the lone obstruction blocking a line of people, it is because you need to move. This is the social contract. Thank you.

Anxious kids get more reassurance, more check-ins, and more adult presence. What they rarely get is practice at the exact thing that would shrink the anxiety: doing the thing without the parent nearby. Independence is the exposure. The parent’s nervous system is usually the obstacle.

That kind of play did so much at once. Kids organized the game, made the rules, handled disagreements, and kept it going themselves. 🙌 That’s exactly the kind of everyday independence and problem-solving we’d love to see more kids get back.

The more extracurriculars, the better. The question is: The better what? It doesn’t seem like kids are better off psychologically, writes @FreeRangeKids on.wsj.com/4BggBFx

If parents want kids off screens, the substitute can NOT be, "Do fun things together instead!" Few adults have 6 hours free after school. And kids long to play w/ EACH OTHER, not us. Solution: KEEP SCHOOLS OPEN FOR ALL-AGE, NO-PHONES FREE PLAY. letgrow.org/program/play-clu…

Making breakfast… Getting a little lost…Walking the dog…Making dinner. What do these all have in common? They are all small moments, but they carry real responsibility, which results in growing confidence for kids at school. Explore here: letgrow.org/program/experien… #LetGrow

Six free hours after school is the number that makes "just do fun things together" fall apart. An open gym full of other kids covers what a tired parent can't.

'Letting kids simply play when they could officially be “learning” has become almost taboo, and that doesn’t change across income levels.... The more extracurriculars, the better.' @FreeRangeKids of @LetGrowOrg in @WSJFreeEx. Must read!

Children really are human capital. But they’re also humans, period. Along with love, they need the time and independence to play, explore and make friends without constant adult oversight. Mopping some bathrooms is good, too, writes @FreeRangeKids on.wsj.com/4e5UJD9

I'm Gen X. We were thrown to the wilds as soon as we could walk. I was little more cautious with my sun and waited until he was 7.

On Reddit: "My parents didn't let me trick or treat w/out supervision until I was, like, 15 or 16. I always had my mom or dad with me thru the ages of 9-11." IS THIS COMMON??? PARENTS: What age do you start letting your kids trick or treat (in groups) unsupervised?