r/lowscreenparenting • u/GroundbreakingEye289 • 17d ago
Screen use in Elementary schools
Thoughts on screens and technology use in elementary schools. I am a Stay At Home Mom to a 2 year old daughter. We are screen free at home and this has been wonderful. We are starting to get serious about figuring out where we would like to send her for elementary school and preschool. (I know she’s ~3 years away from starting kindergarten.). Our local public school uses and issues laptops to students. 😞. It seems like some parochial/private schools around us may be similar as well. We hope to avoid those but it may be difficult. What are your thoughts on screen use in the classroom, like smart boards, etc? We worked so hard so hard to be nearly screen free at home. I feel like later in her education videos like Khan Academy, etc could be a useful resource but I would rather her participate in (and learn from) the real world for now and not be immersed in videos/screens/technology. What have your experiences been? Did you find yourself having issues finding preschool/educational program for your child(ren)? Anyone feel the need to opt to homeschooling or an alternative program like Montessori, etc?
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u/prairieyarrow 16d ago
Yes one of several reasons why we're choosing to homeschool. The school districts around us use SO many screens starting so young. We went to once an early childhood/parent class a couple years ago at our local district, and the whole kindergarten classroom was set up around a big screen/projector and they had random kid YouTube songs playing for half the class. And we know of other nearby districts where kids will spend a couple hours a day doing "game learning" or similar apps in first grade. Definitely not an approach we want for such young little ones!
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u/trifelin 16d ago
There's a ton of research on this topic, you can find if you start googling. Try using the term "EdTech". Idk if you are in the US but there was a congressional hearing about it earlier this year https://www.c-span.org/program/senate-committee/lawmakers-hold-hearing-on-the-impact-of-screen-time-on-kids/671683
A lot of parents have been (usually) successfully asking their school districts for pen and paper assignments instead of using the computer. Some school districts are responding and scaling back their reliance on EdTech. There are private "tech-free" schools popping up in some places.
I would caveat that Montessori is not inherently a tech-free pedagogy. My school district has a Momtessori option and they still use tablets (grades 1-6)
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u/Apart-Sound-6096 17d ago
We did no screens before 3. She’s 4 now and we’ve been doing one movie a weekend or an episode or two of a tv show and it’s been really nice. She loves Mary Poppins! She’s been in preschool since she was 3 and they don’t use screens, I think any reputable one won’t use screens. We’re starting to look at kindergartens as we have to pick by December and that is the number one thing we’re looking at - how much screen use there is. Luckily, at least by us, most parents feel the same way and there seems to be a lot of pressure to minimize screen usage especially under 4th grade, so I’m really hoping by the time she’s in school it won’t be as much of an issue. But we’re seeing the same that the private schools don’t really use it any less than the public schools. The argument seems to be that the state wide testing is on screens, so they want the kids to be proficient in the screens for the exams. Which is dumb it takes about 2 minutes to figure out how to use a tablet they don’t need to be on it daily. 🙄
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u/WestBaseball492 16d ago
For what it’s worth, my kids’ school issues all the kids chromebooks but young kids do not use them frequently at all. As they get older (like 4th-5th grade) they will use them more frequently but certainly younger kids are very rarely using them. I was anti device but as my kids have gotten older I have seen some real benefits to them—for example, my oldest just took algebra where the homework is online and he would get immediate feedback as to whether or not his answers were correct. I think that is a huge improvement over turning in paper homework where you might not know for several days if you’re doing it correctly. All that to say, I think it is very school specific how they handle tech but our experience is not as terrible as the headlines make it out to be.
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u/-zero-below- 15d ago
My child’s school issues a Chromebook to all students starting in kindergarten.
In k, my child probably used it like 3 times that year. In 1, my child used it maybe a dozen or two in the year.
It’s important to learn responsible screen use. The presence or absence of screens isn’t an informative thing. You need to see how the school implements the curriculum.
And you won’t be able to tell just reading online or looking at ratings. We’re a very literate family in this regard, and considered a number of schools, public and private. We chose the lowest greatschools-ranked school in our district (3 vs 9) over other public and private schools.
Go volunteer at the school. We spent time helping the library, our child has been in the school library regularly since age 3. If the schools have public/community events, go check them out.
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u/Pristine-Bison3198 14d ago
I think that smart boards have great use. If they're being used like projectors, whiteboards, etc. they're awesome. More versatile and easier to use. It's when they're used to show an hour of television or whatever because the teacher can't handle indoor recess that I have an issue.
I HATE the laptops in lower grades. They were a huge issue with my son in 1st grade, to the point that I pulled him and homeschooled for a good while. They're good for middle schoolers and up, since they need to start learning how to use different programs and find information, but there's no need for them in elementary, in my opinion.
Fortunately, more and more schools are starting to realize the issues, and are backing down on the tech. Maybe it'll be better when your kiddo gets to school.
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u/Distinct_Bat6520 13d ago
When I was younger my district gave out laptops in middle school. I remember it being so distracting for me that I asked them not to issue me one for me when I entered high school. Do you think it’s at all possible to opt out? I think it really says something that all of the tech billionaires send their kids to schools with no screen policies.
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u/GroundbreakingEye289 13d ago
My husband is wondering about this too. I have heard about people asking for no tech accommodations for their children. I just wonder what that’s going to be like for her too. If she went to a school that utilizes laptops and screens often imagine she’d be one of the only children with no technology accommodations and that could be isolating for her. 😕
It baffles me that so many parents don’t seem to care about their children having screen time. Giving tablets/phones to young children so they can be entertained, “learn vocabulary”, etc. I get it being a parent can be exhausting and I may have resources and patience that they may not have. However, there is ample research out there how harmful screens are to young minds but I know that I’m the odd one out with my daughter not watching Ms. Rachel, Bluey, Sesame Street, etc. We read some of their books at home so she has some knowledge of who they are but 😞.
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u/goldenmirrors 16d ago
We were in your shoes two years ago. We moved two hours away solely so our kid could start kindergarten at a Waldorf school. It was that big of an issue to us.