Parents want a 'human, book-based education for their children' -- not 'electronic fentanyl'

Millennial parents who grew up with technology are leading the anti-tech rebellion, writes Nicholas Smyth, a professor ethics and technology at Fordham, in Persuasion.

Photo: Boris Hamer/Pexels

They remember computers in school -- perhaps in the "lab" -- and use technology at home, he writes. But they think their children are a little young to be given their own Chromebook or an iPad when they start kindergarten.

"It is time for education systems to regain public trust by respecting a parent’s right to a human, book-based education for their children," Smyth writes.

A growing number of children are diagnosed with attention-deficit disorders and autism, he notes. A "personal digital distraction device" is dangerous, parents say. It can "make symptoms worse, delay executive functioning, and reduce attention spans amongst the children who need them the most."

Parents of students with special needs say schools do not enforce an Individual Education Plan (IEP) that calls for limiting screen time. Devices are so integrated into teaching that it's impossible.

 Linda in Texas discovered that while her doctor-ordered opt-out request for her 2nd grader was technically being honored, the school wasn’t providing any alternative instruction. They were just “having her sit and draw while the other kids were online.”

"Vermont is now considering codifying a right to opt out, and Iowa’s legislature just passed a screen time limit for K-5," writes Smyth.

Some parents say opting out works well. "One parent reported that the kids in her daughter’s class were jealous that she didn’t have to sit and navigate endless apps, videos, and textboxes to finish her work."

But others say they've been told their child must use a laptop, or "spend the day doing nothing." A North Carolina mother moved her son to a low-tech Catholic school.

"It's like the computer stole her," says the father of a seven-year-old in Chao Deng's story on the nationwide parent uprising against school technology in the Wall Street Journal.

He organized parents in Philadelphia's wealthy suburbs to show at school-board meetings to "demand more oversight of the district’s digital tools and the right to approve one-to-one devices used by their kids in class," writes Deng.

Dozens of parents showed up -- many wearing T-shirts saying “Screens Down. Pencils Up" -- to ask the Lower Merion School District board to preserve the district's opt-out policy, she writes. "When the board voted 7-2 to repeal the policy with the opt-out language, the audience erupted."

A district spokeswoman said the district is working on a new policy that would create “a balanced digital culture.”

Parents from Los Angeles to New York's Westchester County are pushing for stricter school-tech guidelines, writes Deng. Students average 52 minutes a day on screens in school, more in middle and high school, by one estimate.

Ed-tech "proponents said it can elevate instruction, narrow the digital divide, help pupils with language barriers and other needs — while often supplementing, not replacing, core curriculum," she writes.

In a recent EdWeek survey, more than half of education said "the tech had a positive impact on engagement, yet a majority also said it negatively affected students’ well-being."

It's too engaging, the father of a sixth-grader told Deng. His son, who's carried a school-issued Chromebook for years, downloaded a poker-like game. “Even he says it’s so addictive I can’t stop playing it,” said the father. “It’s like the electronic fentanyl.”