Back to School and Opting Out of EdTech

Since the Old School Festival x Osprey in March, the world surrounding kids and tech use is improving!

It’s been six months since our last update, and frankly this is the most communication I can muster with our work schedules and two little girls who get every minute of our time off-camera. But that is sort of what we’re after, isn’t? I’ve been working harder at spending my time offline, “modeling” behavior for our kids that we wish for them to mimic in an effort to slow down time. If we can be present and off these dang devices, we might not feel like we missed so much of their very fleeting little childhoods. So this is what you can expect from Osprey: minimal contact from us, all the independence you can handle to go out in your own community and build your Nests. And y’all are DOING IT.

In the six months since we last spoke, the Osprey community has grown to 27,000 FAMILIES IN THE UNITED STATES. Read that number again. 27,000 homes swimming against the current. But it’s not just us! Look at how the world is changing for the better regarding our kids and tech use this year alone. Be emboldened by this. You’re no longer the weird family, you’re becoming the louder, rational voice in an international conversation:

1. Jon Haidt’s The Anxious Generation has been a top 4 NYT Bestseller since its release in March 2024.

   

2. Red and blue states agree on one thing: cell phones are being banned in schools all over the USA.

3. Instagram is restricting teen accounts — and blocking sneaky workarounds to keep kids safer online.

4. Two concerned mothers in the UK started their own grassroots movement much like Osprey!

5. Parents are opting their kids OUT of digital education with overuse of tablets and Chromebooks in the classroom becoming a concern.

I’m encouraged by these huge developments, and you should be too. Since our kids have all gone back to school at this point, I reached out to Emily Cherkin, better known as The Screentime Consultant, to walk us through what we, as parents, can do to curb digital education in our schools. See you in a few months with our next update!

Keep it old school,
Erin

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Want to Opt Your Child Out of EdTech? 
5 Tips for Parents from The Screentime Consultant

By Emily Cherkin, MEd., The Screentime Consultant
September 23, 2024

With school back in session, so too are the school-issued laptops, tablets, learning management systems (such as Schoology, Canvas, or Seesaw) and digital curricula and apps (like IXL, Prodigy, iReady, and so many more). It seems like only a few years ago, kids were coming home with crumpled worksheets, heavy textbooks, and printed progress reports.

Today, I hear regularly from parents who say things like:

• “I’m so glad our school is moving towards a phone-free policy, but students are still playing video games and watching YouTube on their school devices.”

• “Before school, kindergarteners are playing games alone on their iPads instead of playing on the playground with their friends. It breaks my heart. They should be talking to one another.”

• “I am shocked by what I see coming through on my child’s Recommended page on YouTube on his school computer– how to get a girl to kiss you, 9/11 conspiracy theories, and worse.” 

• “I am not opposed to my child using technology at school. But they are using it for everything and they don’t have the right skills. I feel like the world was handed to him without us preparing ourselves or him.”

• And more¹…

As a former middle school teacher, current parent, and The Screentime Consultant, I am not anti-technology. In fact, I am very much in favor of intentional use of technology as a tool for developmentally appropriate skills (what I call “tech-intentional™”) . Unfortunately, for the most part, that is not what is currently happening with technology in schools.² At this current moment in time, parents are left with two very extreme options regarding their child’s use of technology in and for school: all or nothing.³ 

Much of how technology is currently used in education is out of alignment with how children learn best (through tactile, hands-on, real-world experiences with humans). Additionally, the companies who create the apps and curricula used by schools, in addition to being extremely expensive, also exploit student’s personal data for profit⁴. Most parents have no idea their child’s private information is being used and sold to third-party companies⁵, let alone the vast amounts of troubling content that is readily accessible (even the best filter or monitoring software is not 100% safe).  

This is why, until school districts and administrators make radically different choices about how much technology is used in and for teaching and learning, I advocate for Opting Out of EdTech⁶ (and I am doing it with my own middle schooler⁷). This means informing your child’s teacher, school, and/or district that you do not give permission for them to use the school-issued technology. I’ve created a free UnPlug EdTech Toolkit⁸ for parents to use in this process, which includes two sample letters that you can cut, paste, and customize for your child. 

Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Replace Judgment with Curiosity: Even if you hate everything about EdTech, start by asking non-judgmental questions of your child’s teacher. Oftentimes teachers have no choice about how much tech they are required to use. A list of sample questions to ask can be found in the UnPlug EdTech Toolkit. 

2. Trust the Benefits: It can feel scary to say “No” to something that seems so important to education. Remember, the technology industry’s marketing budget is huge and persuasive. But parents need to remember that by saying No to tech-for-learning, you may actually be giving your child an advantage by first prioritizing skills they actually need to be successful later (such as executive function, typing, and IRL communication.) 

3. Find Other Parents: I write about being a “first fish”-- the first one to initiate directional change in a school (ha!) of fish. But for a whole school (fish or otherwise) to shift direction, we actually need second and third fishes too. Find other parents who want to Opt Out too and work together. Advocate for all students, not just your own. Less tech in school is better for all kids⁹.

4. Talk to Your Child: Some kids will be fine to Opt Out; others will worry about what their peers think; others might rebel. Regardless, it’s important to include your child in these conversations, to explain your reasons and concerns, and to give them language for what to say when other kids ask, “Why don’t you have to do this on the computer?” It’s not bad to be different; we can equip children with the language to advocate for themselves and explain this to their peers, too. 

5. It’s Your Right to Opt Out: Schools might say, “You can’t opt out.” And it is very likely that opting out will create more work for teachers. That’s unfair and wrong. That’s why focusing on offering support, staying curious, and advocating for change at different levels (school, district, local, even federal) can help turn this ship around. And if you are met with serious resistance, The EdTech Law Center¹⁰ will talk to you for free about your options. 

Change takes time. Even though smartphones have been used by children now for over a decade, it’s taken ten years to see a cultural shift towards phone-free schools. EdTech is the second piece of this change.  

For more information, please visit Emily’s website at www.thescreentimeconsultant.com.

About Emily:

Emily Cherkin, MEd., The Screentime Consultant, combines the unparalleled expertise of a well-known screentime expert (Chuck Norris quoted her) with the compassionate and accessible voice of someone who understands the struggles of becoming more tech-intentional—both as a teacher and parent. Emily’s charisma and professionalism translate to any setting, from auditoriums to conference rooms to classrooms. She is a mother of two teens and a former middle school teacher.

Emily’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NPR, The Today Show (twice), the BBC, Good Morning, America, numerous podcasts, and more. Emily is also a co-founder of The Student Data Privacy Project, a group dedicated to protecting children’s data and privacy in schools.

Emily’s book, The Screentime Solution: A Judgment-Free Guide to Becoming a Tech-Intentional Family, was released in January 2024 by Greenleaf Book Group and is an Amazon Best-Seller in several categories.

1. “It’s Time to Address the Cause, Not the Symptom: School-Issued Devices” https://thescreentimeconsultant.com/blog/school-issued-devices

2. “Kids are using A Lot of Tech at School. Here’s What You Need to Know…” https://thescreentimeconsultant.com/blog/kids-are-using-a-lot-of-tech-at-school

3.  “The Madness of EdTech: All or Nothing Options” https://thescreentimeconsultant.com/blog/madnessofedtech

4. “The Un-Sexy (But Important) Side of Data Privacy: 4 Risks Parents Should Know about EdTech and Your Child’s Data” https://thescreentimeconsultant.com/blog/importantsideofdataprivacy

5. “Why EdTech Surveillance is Bad for Kids” https://thescreentimeconsultant.com/blog/why-edtech-surveillance-is-bad-for-kids

6. “Opting Out of EdTech: Why It’s Hard and Why I’m Doing it Anyway” https://thescreentimeconsultant.com/blog/opting-out-of-edtech

7. “The Battle to Ban Screens From School Now Includes Chromebooks and Tablets” by Julie Jargon, The Wall Street Journal, September 7, 2024

8. The UnPlug EdTech Toolkit https://thescreentimeconsultant.com/unplug-edtech-toolkit

9. The only exception to this is for a student with a documented learning disability, but that is the exception, not the rule. Just because one child in the class needs eyeglasses doesn’t mean all children in the class need eyeglasses, for example.

10. The EdTech Law Center https://edtech.law/