Jonathan Haidt

The kid takes it home.

Basically, it's pick something to do by yourself that you've never done before by yourself.

Work it out with your parents and then do it.

And so it's something like, well, you know, I've never walked the dog or I've never walked to a store.

I've never been out.

So, you know, if there's a store that's three blocks away that your seven or eight-year-old can walk to, that would be an ideal one.

But let them pick, you know.

So they pick something and then they do it.

And then they come into class.

And let's say you do one of these a month.

And they, you know, they just say what they did.

They put it up as a leaf on a tree.

And if you do it every month for, you know, eight months, you get these eight activities that you've done by yourself.

And it's incredibly powerful because, first of all, the kids seem to almost grow taller, like they feel much more competent.

But the more important effect, or as important, is what it does to the parents.

Because the parents are so afraid, like, well, at what age can I let my kid out?

I don't know.

No one else is doing it until 11, so we don't know.

But what happens?

Imagine a town in which all the elementary schools are doing this in third grade.