Parents, real talk: kids should not have ANY screen time during the school week. Otherwise, you encourage an addiction that will retard their growth now and well into the future.
I am actively working at my elementary school to reduce and eventually eliminate 1:1 devices. (I don’t come out and say this yet.) I started a technology committee within my PTA. People don’t really get it at this moment. They will. I attend a monthly leadership meeting with a few teachers and the principal, and the principal gives me a spot on the agenda to tall a bit about EdTech. I know all the research is on my side and we’ll get there.
Thank you. You're going to get unbelievable pushback, but keep working to teach the parents what's happening and what's at stake and, eventually, the kids will be able to just be kids again.
That is very kind of you. All I can hope is that parents stop, look at what's happening to their children, breathe deep, and decide if they like what they see. If the answer is no, I hope they take action on behalf of their child.
Nailed it! I taught in CA in the lower grades of elementary for 15 years. I protested every time they began rolling out new waves of tech, from smart boards to iPads to Chromebooks. Why did my kindergartners need iPads? Please, just give me the money for play dough and blocks and beautiful books. I can’t believe where we are, between screen use at home and at school. Thankfully I can homeschool. I wish more would wake up to this, more quickly!
Homeschoolers are truly spoiled for learning, honestly.
I see the kids in my Sunday school class and I can tell which ones get too much screen time. Sadly, it is mostly boys who have a harder time focusing. Public school as it is, was not made for the way boys learn.
Knowing this, I make sure to keep the boys in my class focused by giving them movement activities every 10 minutes.
As someone who was raised with limited screen time, I don't think it's enough.
It's tempting to believe that dragging your kids away from screens will result in them having a traditional childhood like the days of yore, but the world of the 80s doesn't exist anymore. We have a culture that traps kids inside, even if they're let outside their friends will be inside, playing videogames, sending snaps, reels, and TikToks.
You can't just tear away the screen, you have to substitute it with something. Otherwise as soon as they get access to a screen (and they will) they'll use it nonstop. It happened to me, I had limited technology but no real hobbies to replace it, beyond reading (which granted, is an amazing hobby to have, but it exists only because my parents deliberately introduced it to me in leu of technology).
I played videogames 24/7, got terrible grades, and just felt low-grade awful constantly. Everything that wasn't screen-related felt like a waste of time, some sort of in-between until I could get back to the screen.
I can't say exactly what helped, but I did eventually pull myself away. I think it was a few things, a recognition that the reason I felt bad was because I'd been on a computer too long. Filling my day with more engaging and enjoyable things. Having a broader social circle. I don't know what the answer is exactly, but if you take away the screens and don't introduce other things to do, you're just delaying the inevitable.
I'm not trying to be flip here, but neurological development says otherwise. If you can make sure the kid has a life -- and maybe your parents didn't do a great job; mine didn't either -- they will seek out oxytocin, serotonin, and long-term payoffs instead of short-term dopamine as adults.
You're right that many don't and get sucked in and enslaved.
But you didn't. At least not permanently. Maybe all that reading had something to do with it.
Did you ever read "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"? If not, you should. It's short, and meaningful in light of this conversation, especially considering Dostoevsky wrote it in 1886.
I'm old enough to remember when Apple gave computers to schools in California and help set up "computer labs." The idea was if students became comfortable using Apple, then families would buy them for home use. Microsoft, however, targeted businesses, so more families bought PCs because the adults knew how to use that software.
Somewhere in the late-1990's to early-2000's, however, a tech executive wrote a book with the title "Snake Oil" about the deleterious effects computers were having on children and learning. He advocated that children should not have access to a computer until at least 6th Grade. In fact, his own children didn't have one. Unfortunately, a quick search did not turn this particular book. The author did not foresee smartphones, laptops, or Chromebooks (which is what my school district hands out).
Computers made online teaching during COVID possible, but that came at a terrible cost, socially and academically. Would schools have remained closed for so long if we did not have computers?
I am actively working at my elementary school to reduce and eventually eliminate 1:1 devices. (I don’t come out and say this yet.) I started a technology committee within my PTA. People don’t really get it at this moment. They will. I attend a monthly leadership meeting with a few teachers and the principal, and the principal gives me a spot on the agenda to tall a bit about EdTech. I know all the research is on my side and we’ll get there.
Thank you. You're going to get unbelievable pushback, but keep working to teach the parents what's happening and what's at stake and, eventually, the kids will be able to just be kids again.
Every post you publish is insightful, easy to follow, and galvanizing. Please keep up the great work; I really look forward to your content.
That is very kind of you. All I can hope is that parents stop, look at what's happening to their children, breathe deep, and decide if they like what they see. If the answer is no, I hope they take action on behalf of their child.
Nailed it! I taught in CA in the lower grades of elementary for 15 years. I protested every time they began rolling out new waves of tech, from smart boards to iPads to Chromebooks. Why did my kindergartners need iPads? Please, just give me the money for play dough and blocks and beautiful books. I can’t believe where we are, between screen use at home and at school. Thankfully I can homeschool. I wish more would wake up to this, more quickly!
Homeschoolers are truly spoiled for learning, honestly.
I see the kids in my Sunday school class and I can tell which ones get too much screen time. Sadly, it is mostly boys who have a harder time focusing. Public school as it is, was not made for the way boys learn.
Knowing this, I make sure to keep the boys in my class focused by giving them movement activities every 10 minutes.
As someone who was raised with limited screen time, I don't think it's enough.
It's tempting to believe that dragging your kids away from screens will result in them having a traditional childhood like the days of yore, but the world of the 80s doesn't exist anymore. We have a culture that traps kids inside, even if they're let outside their friends will be inside, playing videogames, sending snaps, reels, and TikToks.
You can't just tear away the screen, you have to substitute it with something. Otherwise as soon as they get access to a screen (and they will) they'll use it nonstop. It happened to me, I had limited technology but no real hobbies to replace it, beyond reading (which granted, is an amazing hobby to have, but it exists only because my parents deliberately introduced it to me in leu of technology).
I played videogames 24/7, got terrible grades, and just felt low-grade awful constantly. Everything that wasn't screen-related felt like a waste of time, some sort of in-between until I could get back to the screen.
I can't say exactly what helped, but I did eventually pull myself away. I think it was a few things, a recognition that the reason I felt bad was because I'd been on a computer too long. Filling my day with more engaging and enjoyable things. Having a broader social circle. I don't know what the answer is exactly, but if you take away the screens and don't introduce other things to do, you're just delaying the inevitable.
I'm not trying to be flip here, but neurological development says otherwise. If you can make sure the kid has a life -- and maybe your parents didn't do a great job; mine didn't either -- they will seek out oxytocin, serotonin, and long-term payoffs instead of short-term dopamine as adults.
You're right that many don't and get sucked in and enslaved.
But you didn't. At least not permanently. Maybe all that reading had something to do with it.
Did you ever read "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"? If not, you should. It's short, and meaningful in light of this conversation, especially considering Dostoevsky wrote it in 1886.
I'm old enough to remember when Apple gave computers to schools in California and help set up "computer labs." The idea was if students became comfortable using Apple, then families would buy them for home use. Microsoft, however, targeted businesses, so more families bought PCs because the adults knew how to use that software.
Somewhere in the late-1990's to early-2000's, however, a tech executive wrote a book with the title "Snake Oil" about the deleterious effects computers were having on children and learning. He advocated that children should not have access to a computer until at least 6th Grade. In fact, his own children didn't have one. Unfortunately, a quick search did not turn this particular book. The author did not foresee smartphones, laptops, or Chromebooks (which is what my school district hands out).
Computers made online teaching during COVID possible, but that came at a terrible cost, socially and academically. Would schools have remained closed for so long if we did not have computers?