10/11/2026
What would happen if we stopped managing teens and started trusting them?
Dr. Peter Gray's "Restoring Childhood: How to Set Kids Free in the Age of Anxiety" landed on our shelf this week, and we're diving in. Gray traces how childhood got so tightly managed — more structure, more supervision, more intervention — and makes the case that the restrictions themselves, rather than screens, are driving the youth mental health crisis.
We'd put a finer point on it: phones are part of the problem, just not the biggest piece. The bigger piece is what adults do in response — more restriction, more control. And a tighter leash doesn't hand a teen back the freedom that went missing.
At RLC, we're working from the other direction. The teens decide how they spend their days, what they learn, and who they learn it with. Support without restriction: no grades, no bells, no one else steering their curiosity. Respecting how a teen wants to live their life shouldn't be the radical option — it's just what they need.
If you've been wondering what that looks like in practice, our Open House is Saturday, October 24. Join us to learn more.
