I'm thrilled to have an elementary school teacher weigh in, Dave. Whenever I try to back up a point with scholarly research, I'm aware that someone who's in the trenches (as opposed to in academia) might have a perspective the studies weren't able to capture. It's reassuring that my views made sense to you.

The self-regulation issue you mention concerns me a lot. It seems to be a problem even here in the Deep South, where parents work harder than in some regions to instill manners in children.

There's a comment on this story from a retiree in nearby Mobile, Alabama, who says he'd thought of substitute teaching but was dissuaded--for reasons similar to those you mention--by acquaintances who'd done it. They said it was so hard to control classes now, he wouldn't enjoy it.

You're probably right to suspect that the problem goes beyond America. The British mindfulness study I quoted was massive--eight years long and involving many thousands of kids, sponsored for in part by the National Health--and I suspect it got funded in part because someone thought, "We've got to get these kinds under control somehow."

Thanks so much for your valuable perspective (and I hope you can avoid that mindfulness rabbit hole).