Schoolwork Shouldn’t Serve as Screen Time

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Children have a childhood and time is one of the most precious resources we have in schools. For these reasons, I feel increasingly frustrated that I have almost no power to stop my own children from wasting time in front of a computer screen.

This is because screens are expected to access and complete their schoolwork. My kids are tasked with watching online videos and answering questions about them on an online form. Your grades reflect your answers.

No doubt, this allotted screen time probably comes from a good place. Teachers want to offer students experiences they enjoy. Why give students a reading they might not do when you could give them a video they are more likely to watch?

If they watch enough videos, students will begin to believe that learning should be passively entertaining and that the best way to assimilate new information is through streaming content. The most compelling story is often not the most truthful, but the most skillfully produced.

I don’t want that for my children. I want my children to enjoy the challenges of learning, draw on multiple sources, and ask good questions about everything they interact with. I don’t want them on autopilot, examining their path through childhood.

UNESCO recently published a book titled “A tragedy of educational technology?”And it is sobering. This book explains how pandemic school closures caused massive learning losses. He also highlights the costs, in terms of mental health, of spending so much time in front of screens.

For years, educational technologists have launched personalized online learning as a response to what plagues education. But even when educational technology was most needed, these tools did not always rise to the occasion. They could not replace teachers, classmates and classroom conversations. And our dependence on them has instilled terrible habits in teachers and students.

Parents were rightly frustrated and angry when their children were stripped of the opportunity to attend school due to pandemic closures. It is not good for a child to be away from his peers and in front of screens. Key social, emotional and intellectual skills. They are lost when this happens. That is why we must not replicate the worst aspects of school closures now that children are back in school. Children should spend time interacting with their teacher and each other, making eye contact and appreciating what can only be learned through human presence, without retreating to the safe, solitary spaces of their devices.

Their schoolwork should engage them in what is best in our culture, not what is most convenient or entertaining. This means reading challenging texts with students and working to help them develop their voices in relation to these texts. However, educators seem to have a hard time remembering that distance learning was the best thing we could think of to do during lockdown, not a best practice we should continue.

I’m not afraid of mourn everything that was lost due to the pandemic. Children suffered tremendously and schools across the country will have to deal with the academic, social and emotional consequences for years to come. My grieving process involves honoring my hopes and fears in the midst of the pandemic. So I promised myself that if we ever got back to normal, I wouldn’t take the physical presence of my students for granted. He would look at their unmasked faces and try to communicate how much he appreciated us being together.

Screens and the illusion of commitment they offer get in the way of this kind of lived gratitude and distract us from what matters.

To be clear, the lives of teachers in schools are often tremendously difficult. Many educators are demoralized and underrated, but an overreliance on screens will not make the work of teaching more rewarding or valued. It is the human connections that make teaching a called infinitely rewarding. I know this from my own classrooms and from my experience training future teachers.

As much as I internally complain about having to pick up all the little Lego pieces, Magna-Tiles, and wooden blocks that my kids leave scattered around the house at the end of a long day, I know that this kind of embodied play is the foundation of a good childhood. And as hard as it is to listen (really listen) to the stories my daughters tell as they process their day at school (and not just let my mind wander to all the items on my to-do list), there’s nothing better . gift that we can give to children that our utmost attention.

I am not a perfect parent or teacher, but I do know that I do my best when I am present. And I know that screens prevent me from offering my full presence. I wish I had more power to keep them out of schools because I know my children – and all of our children – deserve better.

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chalk beat is a nonprofit news organization that covers public education.