Anonymous wrote:My dc's school is still using those terrible slides Gatehouse sent out during Covid .

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, you need to balance it because tech is used in college and in the workplace. My kids did plenty of writing on paper and reading actual books in FCPS — to include my current middle schooler — but they also used tech for repetition (e.g., math), taking notes, and for most textbooks. Most of the textbooks for my current college students are online, as are their notes and the teachers’ presentations. My DD will purchase hard copy books for English because she prefers them to online books.

Kids have lots of teach at home. They don’t need it in school too. Yes college is mostly on the computer and high school is a good time to introduce the laptops one on one. We aren’t talking about high school though. We are talking about the fundamental years of k-8. Students do not need electronics in school. Kids were smarter back in the day because we used books, pencil and paper. When we learned to type and do research, we had to visit the computer lab twice a week. We still learned to type, research, etc. we didn’t have programs like Lexia teaching our kids. We had teachers that taught.

The tech is because of the broken model of heterogeneous classes. When we were kids and the teacher taught mainly it was common to group classes so a teacher was not trying to teach to widely different ability levels. Unless you fix that it will be hard to fix the tech use.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, you need to balance it because tech is used in college and in the workplace. My kids did plenty of writing on paper and reading actual books in FCPS — to include my current middle schooler — but they also used tech for repetition (e.g., math), taking notes, and for most textbooks. Most of the textbooks for my current college students are online, as are their notes and the teachers’ presentations. My DD will purchase hard copy books for English because she prefers them to online books.

Kids have lots of teach at home. They don’t need it in school too. Yes college is mostly on the computer and high school is a good time to introduce the laptops one on one. We aren’t talking about high school though. We are talking about the fundamental years of k-8. Students do not need electronics in school. Kids were smarter back in the day because we used books, pencil and paper. When we learned to type and do research, we had to visit the computer lab twice a week. We still learned to type, research, etc. we didn’t have programs like Lexia teaching our kids. We had teachers that taught.

Anonymous wrote:So, you need to balance it because tech is used in college and in the workplace. My kids did plenty of writing on paper and reading actual books in FCPS — to include my current middle schooler — but they also used tech for repetition (e.g., math), taking notes, and for most textbooks. Most of the textbooks for my current college students are online, as are their notes and the teachers’ presentations. My DD will purchase hard copy books for English because she prefers them to online books.

Anonymous wrote:Please name schools where kids don't do handwriting and are overexposed to screen.
Mine is SVES, every year she brings a lot of writing. They have lots of projects where they write, construct from materials, draw etc.
I don't like st math and myon. Cause with st math sometimes she doesn't understand what is the task and cannot complete it. With myon somehow she chose scary stories and had nightmares after. Too much freedom in choosing things to listen without guidance. But it's life and those experiences teach us smth else, like when and how to ask for help.

Anonymous wrote:My kids were on the laptops all day at Bull Run ES. Their handwriting is appalling. They never learned to type or write in cursive.

Anonymous wrote:I’m concerned about the overuse of tech in schools and esp FCPS. I’m not totally opposed to Lexia and st math but not a fan of all of the apps my kid gets out on otherwise. If I asked teachers if they could have my kid only do the book box instead on myon, tumblebooks, starfall, etc would that work?

As the grade levels advance, I know even more is done on computers, and I’m concerned given the benefits of handwriting for neural development and learning. Is there any way I can ask teachers to have my kids do more by hand and then just turn it in? Or other ways people have navigated this?

For hw, could we print and hand in in person? I’d be happy to volunteer to grade his work!

Any stories of people who were able to secure non or reduced tech options for their kids would be appreciated. [/quote

+1 well said and kudos to you for voicing this widespread concern