Last fall, I was contacted by a reader who was so concerned about the widespread use of screens in his young child’s classroom that he had pulled his child out of his local school district. The parent wanted to know if, from my reports, I had heard of districts that were not using screens in grades K-2 or were only using them sparingly.
As I began doing research, interviewing parents, and watching school board meetings across the country, I discovered that many districts and states were wondering how to best incorporate screen time into the early years of school — or if they should do it at all. Some have already taken steps to move away from screens. And in many other districts, I found that parents were increasingly concerned about the amount of excessive – non-academic – entertainment their young children had access to at school, particularly during snacks, indoor recess, and lunch. In some cases, children came home knowing the commercial jingles and language of YouTubers due to screen time at school.
Last week, I wrote about this battle for screen time in an article published in partnership with the New York Times. The response was immense. Here’s a sample of comments I’ve received via email and on LinkedIn, or seen in comments and on social media. (Some have been lightly edited or shortened for clarity.)
Parents and educators across the country say screen time in early elementary school has been a concern for years.
“I was horrified that my son’s school gave every kindergartner a Chromebook (in 2023),” one New York mom wrote on LinkedIn. “I had worked so hard to limit screen time, and then he was in a school tracking service watching YouTube videos on the Chromebook. (The tracking service has since banned Chromebooks, thank goodness). And snack time! In kindergarten, they watched PBS Kids videos during snack time. And I love PBS Kids, but snack time should be for learning to converse with your classmates, not for watching videos. I wanted to complain at school, but I didn’t want to be “that” parent, so I never said anything.”
“My daughter was watching sexy K-Pop Demon Hunters videos from the first weeks of school,” Lindsay Lieberman, a cybercrimes attorney in the District of Columbia, wrote in an email. “Many of us are advocating for policy changes within the district as more evidence emerges about the cognitive and developmental harms associated with excessive screen use in young children. »
Andrea, a substitute teacher at her local preschool in Massachusetts, said on Facebook: “They have smart boards in every ‘classroom.’ For little ones! No cute little songs sung by teachers who don’t care about having a beautiful voice. Just busy, cluttered, attention-destroying “songs” for toddlers.
Kayla, who works at a school in North Dakota, posted on Facebook that at her school: “Movies or YouTube videos are played for students on the smartboard during snack time. … The read-alouds are done by someone who has made a video of the book on the Internet, so there are no natural stopping points to stop and talk about what’s happening in the book. »
Betsy Tao, chair of the technology committee for the Montgomery County PTA Board in Maryland, said in an email that the group recently surveyed district families about technology use. More than 1,000 families respondedand the majority of elementary school parents said there was “too much” use of Chromebooks in schools. From the results, Tao said, it was clear that parents were also concerned about “how these devices were being used to access inappropriate and sometimes harmful content, as well as the impact they were seeing on their own children.”
Teachers are turning to screens for many reasons
“I have learned from many young educators that screen time does not always replace social-emotional learning,” Tanya, president of a private elementary school in California, wrote on LinkedIn. “Often it’s about replacing 15 minutes of mounting chaos that prevents learning from happening. Or filling in gaps exhausted teachers don’t have the bandwidth to handle differently. An iPad designed for solo engagement creates a very different experience than media designed with compliance guardrails, development adequacy, and clear use cases.”
Schools’ lack of funding for staff positions has led to increased use of screens in some cases
“In our schools they are cutting the budget for teacher assistants and so sometimes the iPad replaces what should be in-person teaching,” wrote EmmyEm, on Bluesky. “I used to volunteer in my children’s classes as an iPad person who would take a group out into the hallway to spend time on iPad while the teacher did breakout sessions.”
Status tests must change for device usage to change
A teacher named Allie posted on that students in his district must take state tests on computers, one of the reasons they need to become familiar with the devices. “For a long time, we thought kids would be able to translate skills from tablets to computers. Then we learned that wasn’t the case.” But she also criticized some of the non-academic uses of screen time that I’ve been talking about. “I’m angry at teachers who put their kids on YouTube in class because yeah, it’s stupid and it makes the rest of us look bad.”
District leaders and administrators set the tone for classrooms
“Teachers who are required to engage in student-directed learning have no choice but to use technology,” wrote Heather Ann, on Facebook. “We need the “people in power” in schools to allow teachers to return to teaching without technology without fear of being penalized in annual evaluations.
“Parents must react! » wrote Terrie Jordan on Facebook. “The pressure to use the devices comes from superiors and not teachers (in most cases!). »
Within classrooms, children can have varied experiences
Two parents from schools in Croton-Harmon, one of the districts mentioned in the article, told me their experiences were different from those of the parents cited in the article. “I have two children who attend Croton schools…and I have been extremely pleased with the district’s focused approach to using technology,” one parent wrote. Her children have explored coding and are learning digital literacy, she added. “Like it or not, these skills are necessary to thrive in the world we live in.”
Screen time at home is a big concern for educators, and parents need to reduce it too
“We have children in class who are very addicted to screens. Some of them cannot concentrate outside of the screen. Parents cannot afford to spend hours in front of a screen at home and then expect miracles at school!” Billie Hall, a third grade teacher, said Facebook.
“It’s not just up to teachers and schools! Stop giving your kids devices all the time so we don’t have to re-teach them how to concentrate!” Paige Elizabeth, on Facebook.
“Maybe because I’m older I don’t use technology with the kids,” Christina Carico wrote on Facebook. “I don’t have devices in my room and I don’t know the passwords to the school-issued devices (for older kids). My room has chess, Spot-It, Apples to Apples, Monopoly Deal, Word Uno. They *love* to play. However, I am heartbroken when I see devices at the dinner table, at church, at the theater. They are everywhere.”
More screen time in schools
The edtech industry is trying to fight bills in 16 states related to the use of technology in classrooms, writes Tyler Kingkade for NBC News.
A bill proposed in Minnesota aims to ban screen time for pre-K and kindergarten students, according to KSTP’s Richard Reeve.
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This story about screen time for kids was produced by The Hechinger reportan independent, nonprofit news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Subscribe to the Hechinger newsletter.
The article Readers weigh in on our story on kids’ screen time at school appeared first in the Hechinger Report.
