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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We send our children to a parochial school, so not an expensive private school. Aside from the religious instruction, the school's decision not to use any EdTech is a huge draw. We get a full 9 years to build their attention spans and ability to read difficult texts without the distraction of a laptop or tablet before they get to high school. The very high behavioral standards are also great.[/quote]

The kids don't use Chromebooks or iPads at all during K-8, except maybe computer lab for typing? That is great. Our parochial uses tech much much less than the local public, but they still allow iPads occasionally even in grade 3. DD reports getting to do MathFactsLab for 10 minutes a couple of times after finishing her classwork. We began looking at non-religious privates and I was shocked that many of them proudly report having lots of tech use starting in lower elementary. I guess parents paying 40-50K per year want that money to go toward something flashy or expensive, or at least admin seems to think so.[/quote]

That's right: in the elementary years it's limited to standardized testing. As much as I wish we could all go back to pencil-and-paper standardized tests, I recognize that my kids will have to take the ACT/SAT using a computer, so it's good that they're getting the practice with computer-administered standardized tests now. They do eventually learn to type, but they stripped out their computer lab and it sounds like they've got a single cart of laptops for that purpose. To illustrate how well they've de-tech'ed the school, last weekend we were at a school-wide party. I saw only one single middle school child with her own cell phone. One boy from the middle school wanted to take a picture of something, so he had to go borrow his dad's cell phone! They've asked all the parents to pledge not to give their children cell phones, and it seems to be working.

I'm okay with some limited computer use at home. To incentivize my kindergartener to work a year ahead in math, I promised her "Math Blaster" privileges if she learned how to add and subtract up to 20. Now occasionally she'll play math blaster (the computer game from the 90s) to practice her math facts. It's the only thing she does on the computer, and it's rare. For the most part I have her working with base 10 blocks, coins, and board games when she does math at home. And we read real books--no reading apps.[/quote]

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