When my kid was going to start preschool, we went to see a relatively posh private school in the neighborhood. The first thing they showed was a photo of a 3-year-old kid solving a jigsaw puzzle in a big touchscreen. A jigsaw puzzle, you know, that thing where 80% of the challenge for a kid that age is physically inserting the pieces the right way. In a touchscreen! They also boasted about not having any books until age 8 or something like that, I don't remember exactly.
We left appalled. We sent him to a public school instead, where they use screens much less (although they do use them, sadly) and they have books. I don't know to what extent this is a voluntary choice or just because they have less money to buy gadgets, but the result is better anyway.
Now days is is the other way around, the expensive private schools boast no/minimal screens and the public schools have Chromebooks.
This was in Spain 6 years ago. Here, educational trends in countries like the US or Northern Europe tend to be copied with ~10 years delay, so we are still in the "boasting about screens" phase, although awareness is building up among parents so I think they already boast less. I expect what you describe to become the norm in a few more years.
This is definitely true in SF.
Preschools definitely brag about having no toys with electronics and the posher the elementary school, the less screen time they have.
Why can't the public schools ditch the Chromebooks? They cost money, parents hate them, what's the point?
teachers love them
Really?
At best, it's a mixed bag.
The real answer is the same reason younger generations grew up learning how to use excel and word and windows, a rich company found yet another way to acclimate users to their ecosystem and bypass all those pesky regulations around tech and kids[1]. They give out dirt cheap tech to schools to get buy in, they get data, users, (mostly for life, how many non stem people do you all know who explore things like the software landscape?), in short, like everything else, money is the answer. they get marketshare. Schools get to boast about their modernity. only ones losing are us 99%'rs.
[1] https://youtu.be/N3zU7sV4bJE
No books before age 8 sounds like waldorf. They have this weird crazy belief that books shouldn't be introduced before the first adult teeth come out but at least they usually also shun digital in favor of more physical activities.
When we visited schools, we were also very surprised at how many schools encourage screen time. One of the most reputed school near us require each child to have an ipad at 6 years old. I'm completely against that. I see no value in introducing an addictive locked down device this early on. Instead, we chose a Montessori school that forbids electronic devices on campus except for the computing room where primary school children can go with a clear objective in mind (research, robotics project).
But, it was really surprising to me that that school is the exception and most highly ranked school have significantly more exposure to screens even at a very young age
Once saw a promotional tablet from a book company, aimed at getting librarians to appreciate electronic books. The featured one for toddlers? Pat the Bunny, complete with pages that "flapped" when you "turned" them, furry-looking texture on one page that "rustled" when you "touched" it, and a web-cam image where the mirror should be. We thought that… kind of… missed the point of Pat the Bunny. No problem with digital books in general. Just not… that one.
I wonder if there would be a market for schools or daycares offering "pre-digital" style classrooms with emphasis on books, blocks, puzzles, art, outdoor time, and policies to limit phones/screens.
On the other hand, these kids will eventually end up in a world saturated with displays and maybe even AR, so there's some argument for getting them involved with digital stuff at some point.
> so there's some argument for getting them involved with digital stuff at some point
And that's how the argument usually goes, but I don't buy it: every one of us who attended schools without devices learned to pick up that skill some other way. And usually without any problems.
In my opinion, the trade-off swings hard into the wrong direction: there's much more downsides to using devices in the classroom than upsides for the most part.
> every one of us who attended schools without devices learned to pick up that skill some other way.
Everyone? You sure? That has not been my experience at all. (It's also a very bold statement on your part to be speaking for a whole generation of people.)
My experience is that people who are not absolutely raving mad about tech do not, in fact, pick up computer skills on their own. My parents have been struggling with technology their whole lives (even basic things like writing in Word, keeping an email address book or bookmarking websites). I picked up these things as a child but I was also interested in programming and networking and more complex tech things, and it was blindingly obvious to me that this is rare because there was maybe one, at most two other kids like that in my school. Nobody else in class had the faintest conception of what programming is really like.
Even today, while talking to people online as well as offline, I am constantly reminded of this. People do not pick up tech skills, period. That includes people in intellectual fields (math teachers, puzzle enthusiasts, what have you), so it's not a matter of intelligence.
Now, I want to make clear that I'm not saying people need tech skills, or that tech skills should be taught in schools, or that a lack of tech skills is somehow an indication of some sort of lack or decline. I'm actually of the opposite view: I think most things taught to children in schools are useless in later life and I think we are squandering children's talents, curiosity and creativity by trying to force, coerce and mold them. As such, I agree with the sentiment that sitting every child in front of a screen for hours every day is detrimental. I just wanted to clear up this vast misunderstanding that just because you picked up certain skills without being taught, everyone would. It does not work that way. You picked it up because you were interested and passionate about the subject. Not everyone is.
And what really is the upside - it’s all administration and tracking - not teaching.
What’s easier and cheaper than opening a book, writing with pen and paper?
I mean, that’s Montessori. Plenty of opportunities to get exposure to digital stuff outside of school.