What Does a Self-Sufficient 5-Year-Old Look Like?

If you’ve ever wondered whether 5-year-olds have more capacity for learning than we give them credit for, take a look at a clip from a Dutch television show for preschoolers:

The video clip is a beautiful example of the confidence that radiates from young children when they recognize what they are capable of. It also looks nothing like what is on American television for young kids. Adults and puppets are nowhere to be seen. There are no cautionary notes about mom supervising the knife work. First released years ago but still attracting buzz among media producers worldwide, the episode would probably never make it into the lineup of American preschool TV — at least not if American lawyers have anything to do with it.

This is an excerpt from a post I wrote last week in TIME Ideas, an online section of Time Magazine. Read the rest of the piece here.