That's interesting. In Escape From Childhood in particular, John Holt's point of view is something along the lines of: children, being stuck in ("the institution of) childhood ("), look at the world and are always thinking of growing up, and what they want to do when they grow up, and so on. Roslyn Ross, who actually has a son, observes the same thing.

If it happens that some children want to remain in childhood, I suppose a possible explanation is that there could be an allegory-of-the-cave effect. I think most people like making their own decisions until adult interference gets to the point of making them worse at it.