Giving Compass' Take:
- Alicia Simba reports on how schools are beginning to take measures to limit kids' screen time, and how parents and families can do so as well.
- What is the role of philanthropy in supporting families in limiting kids' screen time, replacing screen time with more enriching activities?
- Ask a custom question to find other nonprofits focused on education and technology.
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The closing of schools in the spring of 2020 for 55 million students in the United States ushered in a technological revolution in education that has been a mistake. When students returned to school, online learning continued, with students spending hours of their day in front of a screen, with their teacher and classmates in the background.
As a kindergarten teacher in Oakland, I have seen how laptops, tablets, cellphones, smartwatches and SmartBoards have made students more distracted, anxious and anti-social. Scrolling through YouTube instead of completing assignments. Keeping up with classroom drama over text and social media. Eyes glued to CoComelon.
I absolutely get it. I have played Sesame Street videos instead of singing the songs myself and I have put on episodes of “Bluey” when I should have read a story. Teaching can feel exhausting, and increasingly so, and technology is a way for me to take a break.
When I talk to parents, they often feel the same way. The introduction of devices and soaring screen times since Covid has obliterated their child’s attention when reading a story, increased their fears when they see something scary on the Internet and left them unpracticed in social interactions. And like me, burned out from parenting and increasingly isolated, they continue to hand the technology over.
We know the harm that screens are causing. We have to intervene.
Finally, in one sphere, change may be on the horizon. In June, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) approved a policy prohibiting in-school screen time from preschool to first grade, and limiting screen time to 20 minutes in second and third grade, 30 minutes in fourth and fifth grade, six hours a week in middle school and 10 hours a week in high school.
In my own district, a bell-to-bell cellphone ban will be taking place in the fall, following the example of cities like New York and states like Florida, where test scores improved.
The removal of technology from schools is imperative to improving students’ social-emotional well-being and academic success. And for children to really thrive, limits on devices should continue at home, too.
Read the full article about limiting kids' screen time by Alicia Simba at EdSource.