I’m just going to say it: elementary school kids don’t need ipads to learn. And they certainly don’t need to take them home, creating a constant struggle of screen time regulation.
The vast majority of my kids’ homework is done by paper and pencil, evidenced by bulging folders of worksheets and art projects lugged home each day. Piles of paper shoved into kitchen table corners amass over the course of the week until I select a few favorites to save (until I die, I guess?)
There’s nothing children can’t learn exclusively through paper, pencil, memorization, copying, communication and traditional teaching.
At home, I’m constantly hiding the ipads because if they’re in sight, the kids automatically pick them up. And they can truly zone out, which - yes - gives me a break, but ultimately disciples them toward practices harmful to their development into the most thoughtful, virtuous little people they can be.
I see parents on social media saying the ipad is the ONLY way they get a mental break and isn’t that better than freaking out at their kiddos? To this I would say, please at least have them watch TV instead of a device. TV can’t lead to god-knows-what appearing the seemingly innocent feed. According to Pew Research, 83% of parents with kids under the age of 11 watch YouTube.
And a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study found that kids who spend more than 2 hours a day on screen time activities did worse on language and thinking tests. Worse, kids with more than 7 hours of screen time a a day “experienced thinning of the brain’s cortex, the area of the brain related to critical thinking and reasoning.”
And yet, COVID life led us to gift wrap and hand deliver kids to personal devices 24-7. Just another awful legacy of the devastating public policy decisions during that time. Now, there’s no looking back — unless you choose a different kind of education as we hope to (more on that toward the bottom.)
Over the Edge
Over the summer, we were blissfully free from device-life (because the only ipads we have are rented through the school). During the school year, I daily hear myself muttering, “I hate these things!”
Now, I really hate them (my husband says I shouldn’t say “hate” but I’m not sure, it seems pretty accurate.) Here’s why…
When I tried blocking YouTube from my son’s ipad at the beginning of the year, it somehow blocked a school program he needed so I had to reverse the block. Since then, I’d let him watch YouTube sometimes, monitoring screen time with an app called Securely.
Each time I checked, the only videos he’d viewed were “how to draw” or “math games” — innocent and unproblematic content like that.
Until last week.
I had not checked the app for a week or so when I realized I needed to do so. Interspersed between those learning videos were the kind you don’t want your kids to come across on YouTube. I was horrified.
Usually when I allow him to watch YouTube, I’m regularly checking in, watching for a few minutes with him, asking if anything weird has popped up and ensuring the shows are kosher. But that wasn’t enough. (And just FYI, YouTubeKids is great for younger kids, but he’s grown past a lot of those. YouTube Kids has had their own issues with inappropriate videos, as well.)
I don’t blame him for having clicked these videos, because I could see how they were presented innocently at first, disguising the reality of their content. The algorithm had waited just long enough for me to stop checking in every single day to send this garbage into his feed. I honestly don’t know what all he saw or if he was even on the videos for any length of time. Regardless, I felt panicky.
School program or not, this was it. I immediately pulled up settings, completely blocked YouTube and emailed his teacher to say we’ll have to work around it. His teacher (who I adore, so it’s no issue with her!) replied saying anything “bad” was blocked at school.
I told her I’m sure the videos popped up at home, but either way, it wasn’t worth the risk for him to have any access to YouTube.
For all the money we spend on public schools, surely there is a YouTube alternative. I’m sure there is, but why is YouTube even an OPTION? I remember when we were doing e-learning days during parts of COVID and several assignments required us to use YouTube videos. WHY?
I’m a mom who is paying attention (clearly not enough!), but I know there are kids out there who just have free access to their ipads and YouTube — kids as young as Kindergarten. These things really are babysitters at times, but it’s not worth the risk, considering the absolute filth out there ready to prey on them.
Is it any wonder that tech executives keep their own children from screens?:
Chamath Palihapitiya, one of Facebook’s original executives, has been very vocal about how he believes technology is devolving society. ”[My children get] no screen time whatsoever,” he said during a recent interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box. Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs also famously went against their children’s wishes by raising them with little to no screen time.
I heard someone put it this way: Would you send your kid out onto a dangerous street corner where strangers and predators were hanging out? Then, don’t send them out onto the Internet because that’s exactly what it is.
Moving to Classical Education
This is one of the many draws for me to put my kids in a classical Christian school next year is that they are device-free! Elementary school kids do NOT use ipads and even high school kids must check their cell-phones in at the front desk when they arrive.
I’ve heard over and over how much worse devices are then TV. That the smaller the device, the more detrimental it is — because it draws kids out of the real world and into a digital reality that blocks relationship, conversation, truth, beauty and contemplation. And that’s without that inappropriate videos popping up. More screen time is also linked to slower brain development.
The more I’ve learned about the history of U.S. public education, and how it’s designed to create workers — not thinkers — the more I’ve realized I’ve got to do better for my kids.
This is no knock on our current school or public school teachers themselves (I know many and they are wonderful!). It’s a knock on the system. Our experience so far has been generally positive. I even wrote a piece last year for Christianity Today about Christians who choose public school over private — for some really great reasons worth considering.
For me, its not just about the faith aspect of education, but the wholistic way of learning overall. And certainly, the integration of God into the process is meaningful to me, as well. The time for personal development and character formation is NOW and I want to give my kids every opportunity to maximize those things.
As Jeremy Wayne Tate & Cornell West wrote in the Wall Street Journal:
“That’s one of the virtues of the classics: They are a means of considering what is true without invoking the blind partisanship that encourages thoughtless action. There is nothing we need more today than the cultivation of reason and understanding.”
Yes. Yes. Yes. The more I learn about classical education, the more enthusiastic I am about it.
I can keep saving all my money for their college funds or I can spend it now, when they are truly learning to be people in the world.
After reading “Battle for the American Mind,” by Pete Hegseth I was convinced that it’s more important to financially invest in them now rather than later. Later is too late.
And yet, I’m frustrated.
Because the school we’ve chosen doesn’t want to be dictated in any way by the government (completely understandable!), they do not accept the state education vouchers available to most families. If they did, this move would cost us half the price it’s actually going to. Indiana is one of the most friendly, school choice states but yet, we still can’t actually choose — according to the cost at least — where we want our kids to go.
I believe the vouchers should be tax credits so that parents can choose a classical school — or whatever school they want. Perhaps this will change in the future, but for now, it’s going to be a massive financial sacrifice for us. It’s a really hard choice and I’m already stressed and anxious about the cost.
To go from FREE to $20k/per year? That’s hard to swallow. But I think it matters that much.
So no, kids don’t need ipads
But they do need a an education that is more comprehensive, cultured and catered to things like memorization, logic, and strong communication and critical thinking skills. They need better foundations to move and learn and breathe in a world that subsists on history books written yesterday, a rejection of objective truth and shallow virtue signaling as a model of character.
If all goes according to plan, we’ll be done with the screens after this year. And I think one day, a decade or two from now, I’ll know it was worth it to give them the very best possible education I could have. What could be worth more than growing and shaping good humans who love God, love others, show grace and thinking critically in a world increasingly shaped by darkness?
RESOURCES:
Battle for the American Mind by Pete Hegseth
The Core by Leigh Bortons
Positive Alternatives
*Please note: Those who disagree or choose differently than me — it’s all good! Happy to engage in conversations. Keep it kind ;)