When I was growing up my parents limited my TV watching time and there wasn't distractions like cell phones or iPads. Granted this was the early '00s and there was gameboys and the like but I was limited to a certain amount of time on those as well. Instead I spent a lot of time reading different books. Nothing particularly advanced or impressive, just normal books kids read. But I feel that time spent reading was also time spent building vocabulary, imaginative, and analytical skills. If kids today are raised with cell phones and iPads I feel they will be missing out and it will subsequently hinder their development. I too wish teachers were allowed to give a slap upside the head to a kid who deserved it, but alas those times are gone. Teacher don't have any effective tools to discipline kids beside threatening to tell the principal if they don't stop. It's almost pathetic.
I wouldn't say that they have no tools but you're right, they have definitely been hobbled, especially in the U.S. It's terrible the way that kids are coddled and limited in terms of play and pushed so hard to excel in other areas, all while being told that each and every one of them is special and unique. It's strange that so much money goes into developmental research on children and yet the application of those findings seems to be lacking in society at-large.