Anonymous
Post 10/20/2025 13:15     Subject: Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
Our kids are approaching middle school in an ADW parochial in MoCo. We have heard mixed reviews of the middle school teachers at our school, including some that were very recently hired with no prior teaching experience. Similar to the OP’s question, are there ADW schools with strong middle school teachers and instruction? TIA!
Anonymous
Post 10/20/2025 12:58     Subject: Re:Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Do Catholics schools in lower income areas tend to be lower tech? I'm not in DC or ADW but have looked extensively into my own area's private and parochial schools. There are several low-tech or no-tech schools, but all in lower income neighborhoods. I wouldn't mind having my child join, but the nearest one is a 40 minute drive from my house. I can't find a single low-tech school in our upper middle class neighborhood or in the surrounding UMC and wealthy neighborhoods around us. I guess parents demand some level of "cutting edge" and want schools to have all the bells and whistles?





I cannot attest to if low tech is tied to lower income neighborhoods. I'd wager they are not. I see them usually tied to more classically aligned curriculum schools (which is not the out of the box diocesan approach) or alternative schools such as Waldorf or Montessori types. The Diocese was not immune to the arms race of EdTech and the strains of the growing pains are starting to show. Schools that were advertising 1:1 have now eliminated iPads (never made sense) and starting to advertise decrease in Chrome book use and talk about (not sure if happening) going back to books and paper / pencils. We will see if it actually happens. Some parents scream for tech, tech, tech and others say, less please - I'd like my kid to read a book. If you are interested in low to no tech, research "classical schools" near you. We found a nice, small, private Catholic no tech classical school after seeing poor results from the EdTech arms race.


I searched for classical schools near me and most of them are in lower income areas. I was wondering if it's because it may cut down on costs for the schools? I did find two in wealthier areas, but found they were tied to Christian Fundamentalist groups, which are not my cup of tea. Like you said, Waldorf is the one exception, but out of budget and only located in the city, not suburbs.


St Jerome is in Hyattsville. I would not consider that area 'low income' unless you're comparing it to the like of Bethesda.

Anonymous
Post 10/20/2025 12:24     Subject: Re:Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Do Catholics schools in lower income areas tend to be lower tech? I'm not in DC or ADW but have looked extensively into my own area's private and parochial schools. There are several low-tech or no-tech schools, but all in lower income neighborhoods. I wouldn't mind having my child join, but the nearest one is a 40 minute drive from my house. I can't find a single low-tech school in our upper middle class neighborhood or in the surrounding UMC and wealthy neighborhoods around us. I guess parents demand some level of "cutting edge" and want schools to have all the bells and whistles?


I cannot attest to if low tech is tied to lower income neighborhoods. I'd wager they are not. I see them usually tied to more classically aligned curriculum schools (which is not the out of the box diocesan approach) or alternative schools such as Waldorf or Montessori types. The Diocese was not immune to the arms race of EdTech and the strains of the growing pains are starting to show. Schools that were advertising 1:1 have now eliminated iPads (never made sense) and starting to advertise decrease in Chrome book use and talk about (not sure if happening) going back to books and paper / pencils. We will see if it actually happens. Some parents scream for tech, tech, tech and others say, less please - I'd like my kid to read a book. If you are interested in low to no tech, research "classical schools" near you. We found a nice, small, private Catholic no tech classical school after seeing poor results from the EdTech arms race.


I searched for classical schools near me and most of them are in lower income areas. I was wondering if it's because it may cut down on costs for the schools? I did find two in wealthier areas, but found they were tied to Christian Fundamentalist groups, which are not my cup of tea. Like you said, Waldorf is the one exception, but out of budget and only located in the city, not suburbs.
Anonymous
Post 10/20/2025 11:50     Subject: Re:Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
Anonymous wrote:Do Catholics schools in lower income areas tend to be lower tech? I'm not in DC or ADW but have looked extensively into my own area's private and parochial schools. There are several low-tech or no-tech schools, but all in lower income neighborhoods. I wouldn't mind having my child join, but the nearest one is a 40 minute drive from my house. I can't find a single low-tech school in our upper middle class neighborhood or in the surrounding UMC and wealthy neighborhoods around us. I guess parents demand some level of "cutting edge" and want schools to have all the bells and whistles?


I cannot attest to if low tech is tied to lower income neighborhoods. I'd wager they are not. I see them usually tied to more classically aligned curriculum schools (which is not the out of the box diocesan approach) or alternative schools such as Waldorf or Montessori types. The Diocese was not immune to the arms race of EdTech and the strains of the growing pains are starting to show. Schools that were advertising 1:1 have now eliminated iPads (never made sense) and starting to advertise decrease in Chrome book use and talk about (not sure if happening) going back to books and paper / pencils. We will see if it actually happens. Some parents scream for tech, tech, tech and others say, less please - I'd like my kid to read a book. If you are interested in low to no tech, research "classical schools" near you. We found a nice, small, private Catholic no tech classical school after seeing poor results from the EdTech arms race.
Anonymous
Post 10/20/2025 11:28     Subject: Re:Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
Do Catholics schools in lower income areas tend to be lower tech? I'm not in DC or ADW but have looked extensively into my own area's private and parochial schools. There are several low-tech or no-tech schools, but all in lower income neighborhoods. I wouldn't mind having my child join, but the nearest one is a 40 minute drive from my house. I can't find a single low-tech school in our upper middle class neighborhood or in the surrounding UMC and wealthy neighborhoods around us. I guess parents demand some level of "cutting edge" and want schools to have all the bells and whistles?
Anonymous
Post 10/20/2025 11:07     Subject: Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our ADW school is incredibly low tech even for the older grades which is great . They have chrome books but use them for library, etc. They follow the same curriculum. Can you name the school OP. Maybe that can help?


I hesitate to share the name because there are so many great things about the school. I’d love to know what ADW school is low tech though!



Holy redeemer in College Park is very low tech. There is some use from 4th grade onwards for a few essays and some homework but very little. St Jerome academy nearby is zero tech all the way through.
Anonymous
Post 10/20/2025 08:21     Subject: Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
bump!
Anonymous
Post 10/17/2025 16:41     Subject: Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
Anonymous wrote:Our ADW school is incredibly low tech even for the older grades which is great . They have chrome books but use them for library, etc. They follow the same curriculum. Can you name the school OP. Maybe that can help?


I hesitate to share the name because there are so many great things about the school. I’d love to know what ADW school is low tech though!
Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 03:02     Subject: Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
Our ADW school is incredibly low tech even for the older grades which is great . They have chrome books but use them for library, etc. They follow the same curriculum. Can you name the school OP. Maybe that can help?
Anonymous
Post 10/12/2025 20:54     Subject: Re:Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
Over a 5-year period, one-to-one laptops (1 Chromebook per student + digital textbooks + Lexia/IXL + full device management and tech staff) costs roughly $1,600 per student for 5 years ($320 / year).
The all-paper option (reusable printed textbooks, pencils/paper, basic textbook shipping/handling) costs roughly $800 per student for 5 years ($160 / year).

Anonymous
Post 10/12/2025 20:39     Subject: Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:St Bernadette is low tech. App usage is supplemental. Mostly paper pencil and textbooks. Essays throughout middle school were written by hand.

don't really find old school (^^) as a selling point anymore especia
Illy 4th grade +.

Great your kid can write essays manually, but more important is to know how to submit essays via Google docs, for example, especially at MS level.

Technology isn't going away. Getting more complex actually so these kids had at least be able to navigate Canva by now.


Well, try this. We enrolled our son at the Heights (but we are not Catholic). The focus is on "thinking" skills, as in an old English boarding school. The boys memorize and recite poetry. They learn longhand. They read the great books. They learn how to make thoughtful arguments re the texts, religion and philosophy. There is no emphasis on computers. The head of the school is known for observing boys listening to music and will stop them and ask them to talk about the lyrics (most misogynistic) and ask them why they are listening to that.

The same goes for the women's school, Oakcrest.

Our son went on to an excellent state university, Oxford, and is now at Yale Law School. He thinks the Heights made him think and taught him to discipline himself against the internet.
Anonymous
Post 10/12/2025 18:18     Subject: Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
Here’s another thing to consider: EdTech is poorly tied to university-level expectations. Universities don’t teach math using apps. They assign problem sets and exams with complex, multi step problems that aren’t conducive to being evaluated using apps. History is taught using books and evaluation is often through 10-20 page essays. The low tech approach much better prepares students to meet these expectations later.
Anonymous
Post 10/12/2025 16:53     Subject: Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
The onus is not on low tech schools to prove their students won’t end up behind. Old fashioned, tried and true reading, writing and arithmetic created our world today from the art of the renaissance to the technological renaissance we seem to be navigating through today. Therefore, there is plenty of evidence to support that low/no tech schools can produce competent, educated and effective people. But the ed tech revolution is completely unproven and we won’t know the outcomes and impact on society for all those of students for decades. In my personal experience, the 1:1 screen in middle school robbed my not-star student of three years of critical academic skill building. Big time regret.
Anonymous
Post 10/12/2025 13:09     Subject: Re:Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
Anonymous wrote:OP which school are you at? This doesn't seem to be my experience with ADW schools at all. My kids are under grade 4 so maybe I just don't know yet but I am pretty much most schools have textbooks and use those most of the time. I would suggest to shop around. I do remember looking at ADW preschools and one of the schools had a proud photo on their website of preschool kids with iPads in front of them. I was shocked and crossed that school off the list right away, so maybe there is a deal of variance.


I don’t want to name the school (mostly because we do love it there and it gets some hate on DCUM on occasion and I don’t want to add to that). Our school is pretty low tech until 4th, and then it’s just nonstop. I am not anti-screen time or them using chromebooks, I’m just not crazy about the fact that my child is on a laptop to learn almost exclusively in Math, Science & Social Studies and the teacher seems to mainly teach using apps for those subjects. His Reading, English & Religion teacher pretty much only uses textbooks still.
Anonymous
Post 10/12/2025 11:59     Subject: Any ADW Catholic schools with less screen time in 4th-8th?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:St Bernadette is low tech. App usage is supplemental. Mostly paper pencil and textbooks. Essays throughout middle school were written by hand.


I don't really find old school (^^) as a selling point anymore especially 4th grade +.

Great your kid can write essays manually, but more important is to know how to submit essays via Google docs, for example, especially at MS level.

Technology isn't going away. Getting more complex actually so these kids had at least be able to navigate Canva by now.


I would say learning how to organize your thoughts and express yourself in writing is far harder than learning to upload a document via Google docs. I don’t know about you, but somehow I’m totally capable of using the computer at work without having been taught to do so in the fourth grade…


So...you're not writing memos by hand, in cursive no less (more old school ways Catholic schools won't give up on...really shoukd start teaching how to type), so as you just proved it should be the norm to start technology use in 4th +


I think this comment is a good example of it being harder to reason than to use a computer to write. Your argument is that because I don’t write memos by hand I have proven that schools should start teaching technology use in the fourth grade. That doesn’t really follow logically. At a minimum you’d need to supply evidence that children would be unable to learn how to write memos on the computer if not taught to do so in the fourth grade. But there are plenty of people who are currently writing excellent memos on computers who had to hand-write their reports in the fourth grade. How do you explain their ability to learn to use computers later?