[mikekchar]

Kind of strange comment, but one of the problems I've seen in schools is the assumption by teachers that children are not as intelligent as adults. Generally this isn't true. Usually they lack a framework for reasoning and lack experience with language for communicating. There are some differences with brain development of young children for sure, but in my experience people underestimate children by a fairly large margin. You see the same phenomenon with people trying to talk to adults who are just learning the language. There is an assumption that the person is stupid rather than that they have difficulty communicating.

[zozbot234]

People underestimate kids in some ways, and overestimate them in others. The underlying framework for highly abstract thinking takes time to develop, as does the ability for understanding empathy and moral behavior. A five-year-old kid literally has no notion that driving a car he's not the owner of is theft, and thus grossly unethical conduct. The car is just there for the taking; to him it's no different than playing GTA.

[TomMarius]

5 year old kids are capable of very complex ethical thinking and empathy, most definitely including understanding of ownership. Maybe it's not as common in the US, but you can see it clearly in any country where kids regularly go to child care from age 3.

[SamReidHughes]

But kids do get more intelligent as they get older. They get better at doing stuff in ways not explainable by practice.

[wegs]

They do, but the intelligence of kids is highly underrated. This started with Piaget, and although Piaget has been widely debunked, teachers still believe it.