I’d hated school, but this kindergarten gave me hope. The children played outside almost all morning, then lined up their muddy boots in the hall, washed their hands, and helped make bread. They played with woolly, formless dolls, made tents from plant-dyed cloths, and sang little songs about gnomes. This school seemed like it might be heaven on earth for my son. The catch: in 1999, a decade before the first smartphones, before the debate around “screen time” became commonplace, the teacher interviewing my husband and me told us we would have to eliminate TV from our home. Sure, we said, glibly. South Park. Twin Peaks. Geraldo and Dr. Phil, Jeffrey Dahmer documentaries. We figured they meant grown-up TV. But they meant no children’s TV. Not even Sesame Street. Very young children, the teacher said, need to move around in gravity and to use their senses to learn the world.…