Across the country, more parents are asking a question that would have sounded strange only a generation ago: What if childhood changed faster than families, schools and communities were ready to admit?

In New Glarus, that question is no longer abstract. The New Glarus School District has already held a parent-focused book reading around The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt’s widely discussed book about smartphones, social media and what he calls the “great rewiring” of childhood.

That discussion places New Glarus inside a much broader national conversation, one that is spreading from school auditoriums and parent groups to state legislatures, public health offices and dinner tables.