If you aren't interested in this thread, please don't read it. I am still interested because I still trying to learn more about the school.

Can we end this thread please? YAWN.......

Exactly. My kids will not have iPhones before they are age 15 or older. It's about brain development. Impulse control, self confidence, emotional maturity, ability to prioritize and a bit more life experience first.

I agree kids need to learn to make good choices but how can they learn how that in such an unbalanced environment. Also, we are not talking about high school students but middle schoolers, some of whom will only be just 11 (and a few will still be 10). There is a world of difference between 11 year old and 15 year old.

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I have also expressed concerns precisely because I AM around real teenagers all the time and what I see is pathetic. You seem to equate limits on technology with being provincial. I see nothing cosmopolitan or sophisticated about teenagers who are completely stunted by their addictions to phones, games, social media whatever.

Teenagers are fabulous creatures. They have incredible energy and ability and creativity and optimism if pointed in the right direction. It is heart breaking to see them practically lobotomized by consumerism and instant gratification

Absolutely 110%!!! Especially the bolded. It's heartbreaking.

Anonymous wrote:

European students would tell you otherwise. They don't binge drink and get loaded at frat parties while at University. They do have a sense of more responsible behavior.

Really? I spent some time in Germany around college students. They drank and partied, sometimes to excess. The biggest difference is it wasn't at frat parties, because the drinking age is 16 for beer/wine and 18 for liquor. People drank legally in bars and clubs. In fact, a lot of them got the partying/clubbing out of their system in their teens, and in their 20s they were over it. Anyway, it wasn't secretive, it was just normal socializing.

I think Americans have some sort of weird ideas about European teenagers.

It is still not as common there to get fully blasted.

^^oh, and less drunk driving due to better public transportation.

European students would tell you otherwise. They don't binge drink and get loaded at frat parties while at University. They do have a sense of more responsible behavior.

Really? I spent some time in Germany around college students. They drank and partied, sometimes to excess. The biggest difference is it wasn't at frat parties, because the drinking age is 16 for beer/wine and 18 for liquor. People drank legally in bars and clubs. In fact, a lot of them got the partying/clubbing out of their system in their teens, and in their 20s they were over it. Anyway, it wasn't secretive, it was just normal socializing.

I think Americans have some sort of weird ideas about European teenagers.

Very few will be able to access these type of resources WHEN they are diagnosed with ADD?

What are you talking about?

Anonymous wrote:RE WIS - both middle and high school students can use devices/go online during lunch. FWIW Burke is same for Middle and High School.

WIS and DCI are schools that serve very different demographic populations (wealth, parental education, etc). DCI students, generally, are/will be much poorer than WIS students (negligible poverty). That also makes DCI students much more academically vulnerable. If this is really WIS' policy, I think that it is also making a foolish choice. However, WIS' students have a lot more resources to mitigate the effects of too much daily screen time (i.e., private academic tutors/counselors/educational consultants, etc). Very few DCI students will be able to access these types of resources and professional expertise when they are diagnosed (or most likely not diagnosed) with ADD and the like.

Anonymous wrote:My point is that teens who allowed responsible, incrementally appropriate access to devices generally self-limit better. We all know the kids who aren't allowed to watch tv at home, then when they visit friends who have it they sit transfixed on the screen without moving.
With teens, they want to talk to each other. Try to stop them! It isn't like they will sit and text each other when they are together.

no - it is addictive. The 18 year olds I teach have grown up without limits on devices (the devices were new with them and so they use of them predate all these concerns). 1) they kids CAN"T stay off their phones. It is nuts. they text or whatever all trhough class. 2) These kids absolutely are sitting next to each other texting and watching vids on their phones. I see this at the cafeeria. Are they also talking while thwy do this. Yes. But this is not someing where moderation leads to moderation.

And the analogy with drinking in Europe just doesn't hold. That is a cultural thing. if you grow up in a culture where everyone drinks in moderation, than that is what you will do. US drinking culture is about getting drunk. Also, I went to college in England. Lots of stupid drinking even though the don't share the US complete prohibition on kid drinking. Difference - it is a drinking-to-get-drunk culture and always has been. Now there isn't as much drunk driving becase there is better public transportation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids are going to drink in college. Why don't we start them early on the theory that then they won't go crazy with it when they are on their own? Because their brains are developing and we want to give them a safe space to develop. Because there is no evidence (in fact to the contrary) that drinking in high school means less drinking risky in college.

Same with tech. On both scores.

European students would tell you otherwise. They don't binge drink and get loaded at frat parties while at University. They do have a sense of more responsible behavior.

The UK has a much larger binge drinking problem among young adults than the US does.

Anonymous wrote:My point is that teens who allowed responsible, incrementally appropriate access to devices generally self-limit better. We all know the kids who aren't allowed to watch tv at home, then when they visit friends who have it they sit transfixed on the screen without moving.
With teens, they want to talk to each other. Try to stop them! It isn't like they will sit and text each other when they are together.

What??? YOU obviously aren't around teens. That's all they do. Sit in a circle and text other people. They watch YouTube or vine on their own individual phones and sometimes point out fun stuff to one another.

Yes. I have also expressed concerns precisely because I AM around real teenagers all the time and what I see is pathetic. You seem to equate limits on technology with being provincial. I see nothing cosmopolitan or sophisticated about teenagers who are completely stunted by their addictions to phones, games, social media whatever.

Teenagers are fabulous creatures. They have incredible energy and ability and creativity and optimism if pointed in the right direction. It is heart breaking to see them practically lobotomized by consumerism and instant gratification

My point is that teens who allowed responsible, incrementally appropriate access to devices generally self-limit better. We all know the kids who aren't allowed to watch tv at home, then when they visit friends who have it they sit transfixed on the screen without moving.
With teens, they want to talk to each other. Try to stop them! It isn't like they will sit and text each other when they are together.