Opting Out of Screens

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know any schools (even public schools) that have given ES homework in many years.

Homework starts in 2nd or 3rd grade in most public and private schools IME.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know any schools (even public schools) that have given ES homework in many years.

Episcopal School, 3rd grade. Consistently get homework 2-3 times a week.

[Anonymous]

This makes me so sad- technologically has taken over public school and there is no way back. Parents have no say or options here. Accept the screens or go private.

And most privates are full of screens.

We are seeing how bad screens can be - but no one cares. Schools own your kids and decisions made by school boards will impact every kid with no chance for parents to alter that- sounds alarmist- but you try asking for no screens? It’s just not an option.

What’s the outcome? Kids will definitely have more be more myopia- many more will need glasses earlier in life. Many won’t learn to write by hand as well as prior generations. This will translate to less ability to organize information and translate it into written work. Overall we won’t “grow “ our academic capacity as much. However kids can be exposed to much more information on screens. However they will be unsupervised and many will just watch YouTube and play video games much of the day.


Any way, whether the impacts are good or bad- doesn’t matter- you have no control. Schools are conducting mass experiments on our kids and we just have to watch and see what happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know any schools (even public schools) that have given ES homework in many years.

Sounds made up.

DP. True here too

To add, my public middle school kid gets zero homework

My kid definitely has homework in MS, and my kids had some in ES as well. Public school in northern VA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does your school permit parents to opt out of screen use or provide a screen-free classroom? If so, do you opt out? Or if they don't, would you opt out if given a choice?

Of course not, screens are an integral part of modern life, including the workforce. Why would I intentionally put my child at a disadvantage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want a quality education, unfortunately you have to pay for private.

Most private schools suck the root.

Just being a private school doesn't mean they're inherently good. Most don't even have standards for classroom teachers, let alone certification requirements. Don't get me wrong, there are some excellent private schools out there (and there are excellent public schools as well). But just being "private" isn't a panacea.

[Anonymous]

I'm old enough to remember being told TV would rot my brain.

I turned out just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We can opt out of screens? Ive never heard of that. My public does 1-to-1 beginning in K and so do most of the private schools, with the exception of religious privates.

Yes!! Just ask the teacher to collect the device.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can’t do this. Even if you can technically opt out, it isn’t going to be what you think. The teacher isn’t prepared to teach without screens and all the “materials” are on the apps. Your child still isn’t going to get any direct instruction or purposeful assignments if you opt out. They will likely get some canned premade worksheet, maybe. Or they will watch their neighbor’s screen

This is BS. Yes you can!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t do this. Even if you can technically opt out, it isn’t going to be what you think. The teacher isn’t prepared to teach without screens and all the “materials” are on the apps. Your child still isn’t going to get any direct instruction or purposeful assignments if you opt out. They will likely get some canned premade worksheet, maybe. Or they will watch their neighbor’s screen

As a teacher, I agree this is the sad reality.

I opted out this year.

[Anonymous]

I am a 2nd grade teacher in a public school in MCPS. I am old school so we only use our Chromebooks for assessments. I ignore the admin telling me to have the kids on 30 mins to 1 hour a day. I have math games and enrichment packets with materials they can use and work together as a group to solve if they are early finishers. I used to have a science lab and writing center but the principal told me it was exclusive to the other kids who never got to finis in time or got pulled and had no access to them. I do have a smart board and I use it to display objectives and page numbers and pictures to read aloud primarily as they are from the curriculum but in Math, we use manipulative and I use a camera to guide the in math or we use natural materials including our bodies to show math concepts. Parents appreciate that I do not allow kids on screens. During indoor recess we use playdoh, puzzles, legos, and a huge kitchen with checkout machine. The girls have a huge doll house. They love it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want a quality education, unfortunately you have to pay for private.

My children’s private school starts screens in first grade. They learn how to use a tablet during library and they have some homework on apps. I was not thrilled about it. But thinking back on it, my private school had us in “computer labs” thirty years ago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a 2nd grade teacher in a public school in MCPS. I am old school so we only use our Chromebooks for assessments. I ignore the admin telling me to have the kids on 30 mins to 1 hour a day. I have math games and enrichment packets with materials they can use and work together as a group to solve if they are early finishers. I used to have a science lab and writing center but the principal told me it was exclusive to the other kids who never got to finis in time or got pulled and had no access to them. I do have a smart board and I use it to display objectives and page numbers and pictures to read aloud primarily as they are from the curriculum but in Math, we use manipulative and I use a camera to guide the in math or we use natural materials including our bodies to show math concepts. Parents appreciate that I do not allow kids on screens. During indoor recess we use playdoh, puzzles, legos, and a huge kitchen with checkout machine. The girls have a huge doll house. They love it!

This sounds like my 17-year old DD's 2nd grade classroom. It was such a good experience for her in FCPS. We have a large age gap between our two girls, and the younger one is currently in 2nd grade. It's like night and day. Screens for everything. No play doh or wixi sticks. No fast finishers packets and color by number to practice math facts. No animal research and writing projects. And we need to teach her all math and basic writing skills at home because the tech approach doesn't stick. Wish she could have you as a teacher!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know any schools (even public schools) that have given ES homework in many years.

That's a direct reaction to pushback against it from parents about 20 years ago. Some of you younger parents have no idea that shrillness about it. They used to organize screenings of a 2009 documentary called "Race to Nowhere" in which people essentially said we were pushing kids too hard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_to_Nowhere

It was a whole thing.