We've monkeyed with the details a lot. Multi-grade schoolrooms are all but completely gone now (at least in public schools). Recess time has varied, and took a

We've monkeyed with the details a lot. Multi-grade schoolrooms are all but completely gone now (at least in public schools). Recess time has varied, and took a nose-dive after NCLB (schools were desperate to increase test scores and reckoned more instruction time would help). Recess and free time in general seems more structured and regulated now than it used to be. Fewer kids walk or bike (or ride a horse) to school—the small "neighborhood" school has fallen out of favor for big mega-schools, plus the rise of the 'burbs. At home, I can just about guarantee active outdoor time has plummeted in the last 3ish decades, and kids come to school in whatever state home's left them. I'd further bet less work happens around the house than in earlier decades, outside of actual paid WFH stuff (which is mostly screen shit)—working on cars, mending clothes, caring for chickens or other livestock, that sort of thing, so kids are exposed to and participate in less of it. I dunno if any of those are contributing to this, but it's not like we've held everything the same and just watched boys' achievement fall in isolation.