I toured one of the "best" public middle schools in my district while I was selecting a school for my daughter. Our district has a school choice lottery where you can apply for your kid to go to a school she's not geographically zoned to. During the tour we peeked in a bunch of classrooms. Every single kid was glued to a laptop in every single class. Every. Single. Kid. I asked our eighth grader tour guides about it. They said they issued the laptops during COVID and never got rid of them. Now they use them all day.
Needless to say, I put my daughter in a Classical School that has zero technology. None. Oral exams in their Great Books class. Nobody is allowed to have a cell phone at school. She's reading Plato, learning Greek and Latin, singing in choir. And she loves it.
What a nightmare! This week I had a long conversation with a psychological/educational support worker who has been in the school system for 30 years. She not only corroborated the issue you raise here, but also noted that parents have lost all control at home, with parents handing phones to kindergarteners as soon as they enter the car to be picked up. Yet she says, no one seems to care, or more importantly "Everyone knows what's wrong but no one cares to change it".
Private school isn't necessarily the answer. My 9th grader has zero textbooks: all her "materials" are online. No math book, no history book. Nothing you can quickly reach for to check a fact or date. If I ask her a question she has to scroll up and down the screen to find the answer. I know I'm a Luddite but I truly believe we don't retain information from screens as well as from a printed page. Not to mention the hand-brain connection of highlighting and taking notes while reading. It's all gone.
Yes! I call it the Education Technology Industrial Complex! I work in the schools and witness everyday the harms that being 1:1 has caused. My heart breaks watching little kindergarten children struggle to carrier their own computer in the hallway...why do they have them? In middle school, all most all the behavior referrals stem from issues with the computers and when I ask why don't we just take the computers away, I get looks like I am the crazy one. Sadly teachers have to rely on these online curriculums which make it very difficult to actually print out activities that they are working on. It is beyond maddening. I was recently at the doctors for my daughters annual physical and could only laugh to myself when I saw the sign on the door that used to recommend 2 hours or less of screen time now updated to say 2 hours or less of recreational screen time...ha! Check out my substack some of my writings on the topic https://dencham.substack.com/p/the-education-technology-industrial
When I was doing group therapy with folks with addiction, we had a “F*ck it Bucket” that ALL phones went into prior to groups. We did 4 full groups a day and lunch was fellowship based. They could have their phones on breaks only. EVERY patient who came to programming had to agree to this or they were given a referral. What makes me happy as I have long since retired and the program is gone, is seeing people in the community telling me how grateful for that experience they were. I also STRONGLY recommended dropping social media. Addict brains (even - and especially - recovering ones) do not do well with apps designed to give little dopamine hits. Often times just enough dopamine to make them go back to their drugs of choice.
Our private school isn’t much better, but, he is learning cursive! On the other hand, the kids have access to AI. I caught my 7th grader cheating with it. Which is infuriating because he’s an excellent writer and very capable all by himself.
My oh my! The millennials made it out just in time and we still weren’t unscathed in public school and a decaying culture. I knew “common core” was going to bad from the lamentations of one of my favorite 10th grade teachers. They decided we would be the last grade not to have it. This worse than dystopian. Screen on 24/7. From school to social media to video games to p*rn on repeat. I’m saddened for the parents who were unable to ACTUALLY homeschool, not sit in front of zoom. Middle school, we had one computer class in 8th grade where we only learned to type. High school, teachers had smart boards, but it was like a fancy projector. Then 11th and 12th graders could take online community college classes, but no more than 1 or two a semester. The one of 2 AP classes, was basically transmitted from the NC school of science and math, with a teacher talking to us. That’s all I can remember. I don’t even think I typed a paper. Sooo grateful for the community college credit rather than AP classes. I made a dismal 1 or 2 on AP calculus and a B in college. Community college credit >>> AP. BUT, what I just described is so far from this.
Thank you for this timely post, Doctor! Sadly I can confirm that it’s the same way at our local public schools here in a small red town. Thankfully I’ve always homeschooled my kids. That isn’t to say that screens cannot be a useful tool - for instance, my daughter has long ago surpassed my math abilities so I had to outsource her math instruction, which she does through Well Trained Mind. But it’s just a few hours a day at most and she has a physical textbook as well.
I cannot imagine what the poor kiddos are dealing with in public school these days.
I taught in a private school for three years before and during COVID and there was so much pressure to move everything online. They also were 1:1, but honestly when you count all the iPads and phones and laptops it’s more like 4:1, which means for teachers, it’s like 45:1 every time you enter a classroom. An absolutely impossible environment for teaching and learning, I’m convinced.
I taught in a private school for three years before and during COVID and there was so much pressure to move everything online. They also were 1:1, but honestly when you count all the iPads and phones and laptops it’s more like 4:1, which means for teachers, it’s like 45:1 every time you enter a classroom. An absolutely impossible environment for teaching and learning, I’m convinced.
My kids go to a local K-12 charter school (classical model, Greek dual language immersion). All the kids have tablets but the time on them is limited. They are making a concerted effort to got back to “pencil and paper” writing for most of their assignments. They send home homework in standard handout form. They have banned phones from the middle school including the bus. Part of their homework is to read 20 minutes every night. Most of the work they do on the tablets is to gauge performance and practice for state testing but “real” teaching is hands on, paper and pencil and other person to person interactive work. It’s been amazing to see how the kids have bounced back after c*vid with these methods
I toured one of the "best" public middle schools in my district while I was selecting a school for my daughter. Our district has a school choice lottery where you can apply for your kid to go to a school she's not geographically zoned to. During the tour we peeked in a bunch of classrooms. Every single kid was glued to a laptop in every single class. Every. Single. Kid. I asked our eighth grader tour guides about it. They said they issued the laptops during COVID and never got rid of them. Now they use them all day.
Needless to say, I put my daughter in a Classical School that has zero technology. None. Oral exams in their Great Books class. Nobody is allowed to have a cell phone at school. She's reading Plato, learning Greek and Latin, singing in choir. And she loves it.
I feel sad for this generation.
What a nightmare! This week I had a long conversation with a psychological/educational support worker who has been in the school system for 30 years. She not only corroborated the issue you raise here, but also noted that parents have lost all control at home, with parents handing phones to kindergarteners as soon as they enter the car to be picked up. Yet she says, no one seems to care, or more importantly "Everyone knows what's wrong but no one cares to change it".
Private school isn't necessarily the answer. My 9th grader has zero textbooks: all her "materials" are online. No math book, no history book. Nothing you can quickly reach for to check a fact or date. If I ask her a question she has to scroll up and down the screen to find the answer. I know I'm a Luddite but I truly believe we don't retain information from screens as well as from a printed page. Not to mention the hand-brain connection of highlighting and taking notes while reading. It's all gone.
Yes! I call it the Education Technology Industrial Complex! I work in the schools and witness everyday the harms that being 1:1 has caused. My heart breaks watching little kindergarten children struggle to carrier their own computer in the hallway...why do they have them? In middle school, all most all the behavior referrals stem from issues with the computers and when I ask why don't we just take the computers away, I get looks like I am the crazy one. Sadly teachers have to rely on these online curriculums which make it very difficult to actually print out activities that they are working on. It is beyond maddening. I was recently at the doctors for my daughters annual physical and could only laugh to myself when I saw the sign on the door that used to recommend 2 hours or less of screen time now updated to say 2 hours or less of recreational screen time...ha! Check out my substack some of my writings on the topic https://dencham.substack.com/p/the-education-technology-industrial
When I was doing group therapy with folks with addiction, we had a “F*ck it Bucket” that ALL phones went into prior to groups. We did 4 full groups a day and lunch was fellowship based. They could have their phones on breaks only. EVERY patient who came to programming had to agree to this or they were given a referral. What makes me happy as I have long since retired and the program is gone, is seeing people in the community telling me how grateful for that experience they were. I also STRONGLY recommended dropping social media. Addict brains (even - and especially - recovering ones) do not do well with apps designed to give little dopamine hits. Often times just enough dopamine to make them go back to their drugs of choice.
Our private school isn’t much better, but, he is learning cursive! On the other hand, the kids have access to AI. I caught my 7th grader cheating with it. Which is infuriating because he’s an excellent writer and very capable all by himself.
My oh my! The millennials made it out just in time and we still weren’t unscathed in public school and a decaying culture. I knew “common core” was going to bad from the lamentations of one of my favorite 10th grade teachers. They decided we would be the last grade not to have it. This worse than dystopian. Screen on 24/7. From school to social media to video games to p*rn on repeat. I’m saddened for the parents who were unable to ACTUALLY homeschool, not sit in front of zoom. Middle school, we had one computer class in 8th grade where we only learned to type. High school, teachers had smart boards, but it was like a fancy projector. Then 11th and 12th graders could take online community college classes, but no more than 1 or two a semester. The one of 2 AP classes, was basically transmitted from the NC school of science and math, with a teacher talking to us. That’s all I can remember. I don’t even think I typed a paper. Sooo grateful for the community college credit rather than AP classes. I made a dismal 1 or 2 on AP calculus and a B in college. Community college credit >>> AP. BUT, what I just described is so far from this.
Thank you for this timely post, Doctor! Sadly I can confirm that it’s the same way at our local public schools here in a small red town. Thankfully I’ve always homeschooled my kids. That isn’t to say that screens cannot be a useful tool - for instance, my daughter has long ago surpassed my math abilities so I had to outsource her math instruction, which she does through Well Trained Mind. But it’s just a few hours a day at most and she has a physical textbook as well.
I cannot imagine what the poor kiddos are dealing with in public school these days.
As always, Adrian, great insight. You are absolutely right. Loved what Ben Carson’s mother found as the solution for her sons.
I taught in a private school for three years before and during COVID and there was so much pressure to move everything online. They also were 1:1, but honestly when you count all the iPads and phones and laptops it’s more like 4:1, which means for teachers, it’s like 45:1 every time you enter a classroom. An absolutely impossible environment for teaching and learning, I’m convinced.
I taught in a private school for three years before and during COVID and there was so much pressure to move everything online. They also were 1:1, but honestly when you count all the iPads and phones and laptops it’s more like 4:1, which means for teachers, it’s like 45:1 every time you enter a classroom. An absolutely impossible environment for teaching and learning, I’m convinced.
My kids go to a local K-12 charter school (classical model, Greek dual language immersion). All the kids have tablets but the time on them is limited. They are making a concerted effort to got back to “pencil and paper” writing for most of their assignments. They send home homework in standard handout form. They have banned phones from the middle school including the bus. Part of their homework is to read 20 minutes every night. Most of the work they do on the tablets is to gauge performance and practice for state testing but “real” teaching is hands on, paper and pencil and other person to person interactive work. It’s been amazing to see how the kids have bounced back after c*vid with these methods