The Screen That Ate Your Child’s Education

[Anonymous]

There can be a happy medium. Elementary school kids don't need computers. Let them learn the fundamentals with pen and paper - math, reading, how to write legibly, teachers reading aloud, etc. Gradually work in more tech in middle and high school. Schools have been totally conned by EdTech companies and they need to get rid of all of it.

- HS teacher for 25 years

[Anonymous]

I agree with everyone decrying the prevalence of EdTech in elementary. We are in DCPS and what is very apparent to me is that iReady has captured DCPS by being the way they do learning assessments. It creates an imperative for kids to do lessons on iReady because this helps them better learn, not content, but how to perform on iReady assessments.

However, I will say that as a low screen family, you can fight back. We basically never do iReady lessons at home. Sometimes my kid does them at school but I always tell teachers that my preference is for her to get pencil and paper work, and that she learns better that way. Our school makes a big deal about kids having access to Epic, but we insist on library visits and physical books. Second best is a kindle, which better approximates a physical book experience (better than Epic at least). We almost never use Epic. We complain when we hear about our kid spending large chunks of the day watching YouTube or movies, and when we complain we absolutely see a decline in these activities in the classroom.

We also left a school in early elementary in part due to the level of screen use. There was a parent survey in our last year there where I was shocked to see that most parents want MORE tech used in classrooms. A lot of kids were also bringing phones to school (this was before the new DCPS policy about phones, not sure what it's like there now), and teachers too often used videos to placate classrooms. We moved to a school that still has too much screen time but it's better.

So I guess my point is that while I am fully on board with the no-screen/low-screen education revolution, you have more options as a parent than just complaining anonymously online. Elementary is the best time to do it because it's where the research on screens I most compelling and it's also before grades matter. So you can do things like flatly refuse to have your kid do screen-based homework and let the teacher know they are welcome to send home paper homework instead. You can fight back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My elementary and middle school-aged children all have entirely screen-free educations. They don't have phones or ipads either. It's...amazing.

And how much do you pay for that privilege?

My kid is at a largely screen-free middle school that is a public charter in DC. All classes involve handwritten note taking, and even the writing class required handwritten essays at this point. the ONLY screen he has used in two years was for one essay, and they used a computer that was not connected to the internet to type it.

[Anonymous]

Kids are bringing phones to school in early elementary?? We also moved to a different elementary in part due to screen use. The new one does use iPads but minimally - so far they have done one small research unit. And they use them in math for 25 minutes a day for a math facts app. DS is currently using it during the last half of math to work a grade and a half ahead. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand I’d rather they have zero screens in 2nd grade. On the other, working a grade or two ahead throughout elementary math will help him get into more advanced math in middle and high school. I was surprised that the regular math track tops out at precalculus in high school, which seems really low. I’m not a math whiz AT ALL and even I took AP Calc as a senior.

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

I’d rather they cut more trees (give paper homework) instead of 5 hours of daily laptop homework for my 5th grader in Fcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My elementary and middle school-aged children all have entirely screen-free educations. They don't have phones or ipads either. It's...amazing.

And how much do you pay for that privilege?

My kid is at a largely screen-free middle school that is a public charter in DC. All classes involve handwritten note taking, and even the writing class required handwritten essays at this point. the ONLY screen he has used in two years was for one essay, and they used a computer that was not connected to the internet to type it.

name?

There are a lot of things I appreciate about my kid’s DCPS MS but if I knew then what I know now, I absolutely would have tried to get into that charter. the only caveat is that I think it’s a good idea to get the kids writing on computers by MS, and they do need to learn how to research online. But the “ed tech” apps need to die a slow painful death.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids are bringing phones to school in early elementary?? We also moved to a different elementary in part due to screen use. The new one does use iPads but minimally - so far they have done one small research unit. And they use them in math for 25 minutes a day for a math facts app. DS is currently using it during the last half of math to work a grade and a half ahead. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand I’d rather they have zero screens in 2nd grade. On the other, working a grade or two ahead throughout elementary math will help him get into more advanced math in middle and high school. I was surprised that the regular math track tops out at precalculus in high school, which seems really low. I’m not a math whiz AT ALL and even I took AP Calc as a senior.

I am sorry to say that you need to be more vigilant about math. The apps really, really suck. And just because your child is working ahead on the app does not at all mean that he actually is learning the fundamentals the way he needs to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids are bringing phones to school in early elementary?? We also moved to a different elementary in part due to screen use. The new one does use iPads but minimally - so far they have done one small research unit. And they use them in math for 25 minutes a day for a math facts app. DS is currently using it during the last half of math to work a grade and a half ahead. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand I’d rather they have zero screens in 2nd grade. On the other, working a grade or two ahead throughout elementary math will help him get into more advanced math in middle and high school. I was surprised that the regular math track tops out at precalculus in high school, which seems really low. I’m not a math whiz AT ALL and even I took AP Calc as a senior.

I am sorry to say that you need to be more vigilant about math. The apps really, really suck. And just because your child is working ahead on the app does not at all mean that he actually is learning the fundamentals the way he needs to be.

I will second this. The apps don't encourage deep knowledge and spend too much time training kids on how to answer the questions as presented in the app. They aren't getting 365 knowledge.

The Beast Academy books are good if you are looking for engaging material to supplement or move your kid further along than what they are doing in the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

It’s so disturbing - all the tech.

Even PEP (the preschool in mcps) uses Promethean boards. Instead of singing in a circle, making eye contact with one another - they sing along to YouTube.
Nothing tactile for the “weather report” - instead they drag their wand on a screen.

Waiting outside ES classrooms in morning before first bell- no chit chat, no games - children on chromebooks.

Civilization is doomed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As an early elementary teacher and mom of current high schoolers, I agree that screens are overused is some classrooms. This seems to be worse the older the kids get.
However, are we also going to discuss kid’s access to screens at home? Over the years I see young children far less prepared to interact with peers in a classroom setting. When I ask them what they did over the weekend I hear a lot more about what they did on the phones (they are 4 and 5) than what they did with human beings.

Agree! I remember when the American Academy of Pediatricians had screentime guidelines per kids ages. Now, you've got 5 yr olds on screens all day and no one says a word about it. I feel so sorry for these kids today. Their parents just let them melt their brains so they don't have to raise them. I even feel sorry for the little ones at Costco in the cart watching mommy's phone instead of looking around at all the stuff, running the aisles, heck even whining and crying is a better use of their time. Moved my kid to tech -free school after seeing how the screens all day ruined my older one's education. Lesson learned.

The smart kids / good students may navigate it but what opportunities are lost!? And the poor students - well, they are seriously underserved with the screens in the classroom. The window to impart skills for these ones (usually the boys!) will be closed by high school and some may be forever doomed and uneducated. Way to go EdTech! You got scammed America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Naw. Screens are an integral part of our lives. They belong in schools.

Not going back to slate and chalk. Nope.

Boy are you going to be surprised.

At what?

My kids grew up with screens in the classroom, one just graduated UVA Summa Cum Laude and has a professional services job in Manhattan where she is thriving (and working with screens, match). The other is a junior at Virginia Tech and also thriving. She is working toward a career in public health.

The kids will be ok.

If your kids are grown, then they are not the same as the kids that are learning to read on laptops by playing a game where you have to rapidly jump a rabbit to get to the right phonetic sound - or fight another penguin to get to do a math problem. But you definitely will want to do something about it before your grandchildren get to school because they will also not learn if this continues.

+1 a grown adult now would have missed the high tech elementary school era. A 2000s elementary school would have been a shared laptop cart or a computer lab shared by the school. Early Gen Z born in the late 90s and early 2000s received that experience, at least in the elementary school years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Naw. Screens are an integral part of our lives. They belong in schools.

Not going back to slate and chalk. Nope.

I am pro Luddite. Bring back good ole reading and writing. My kid's high school is doing more and more assignments old school (pen and paper) and I think it's fantastic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Naw. Screens are an integral part of our lives. They belong in schools.

Not going back to slate and chalk. Nope.

I am pro Luddite. Bring back good ole reading and writing. My kid's high school is doing more and more assignments old school (pen and paper) and I think it's fantastic.

+1000 I see our not-fancy private high school issuing textbooks in all classes and laptops only used for submitting homework. No laptop use in class. The EdTech experiment is dying in privates.

[Anonymous]

It is funny that only the wealthy will be able to access tech free education. So ridiculous that we need to pay to have less of it. Ed tech has really fooled the masses.