Kids Preferred Books to Screens So School Bans iPads and Brings Back Textbooks

By B.N. Frank

More research and more experts warn that excessive screen use isn’t good for kids AND for a variety of reasons (see 1, 2, 3, 4).

Silicon Valley parents (aka tech inventors) have been sending their kids to private low-tech schools for many years and limiting their use of tech in their homes. More recently it’s been reported they’ve been going to desperate extremes to shield their kids from screens – like spying on their nannies.

Unfortunately, many public schools have become “high tech” – and that, of course, requires excessive amounts of screen time. Thanks to Healthy Food House for reporting about one private school in Australia that traded in their tech so students could learn happily ever after:

Nowadays, technology has become one of the crucial aspects of living, and youngsters are becoming growingly dependent on their high-tech devices. This made numerous schools incorporate them in the classroom, and numerous parents believe they are essential for modern education.

However, numerous scientists and doctors warn about their excessive use and the effects of the digital era.

As a result, Reddam House Private School, located in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, has officially banned the use of iPads and gone back to regular textbooks. The school claims that it was done due to the feedback they received from students, who prefer pages to screens.

The school has used these devices for the past five years, but found that they do not improve the technology skills of the students but hindered their learning instead.

According to principal Dave Pitcairn, students were distracted by messages and other alerts and maintained that they learned better when searching through a textbook, as they found it easier to research and take notes.

He explained that they had not entirely gone away from hard copy, as they kept year 11 and 12 hard copy. When students got to year 11 and made the comparison between digital and hard copy, they preferred the hard copy. Namely, they found it much easier to navigate through the textbook with the hard copy.

He maintains that students learn better the more faculties they use, the more senses they use in research and reading and making notes.

IPads were only introduced in 2010 and adopted into classrooms in the subsequent years, and the conflicting research between iPads and textbooks reveals that there are pros and cons to everything.

Students were also shown to engage better with a physical textbook and to comprehend better when learning from actual printed textbooks.

We should not forget the effects of the blue light emitted by these devices, which might lead to permanent eye damage, and their use has been linked to mental health issues and delayed language development, obesity, sleeping and attention problems, and more.

Some even note that the use of digital devices could cause addiction, depression, chronic stress, and irritability.

Apparently, the decision made by Reddam House Private School in switching back to print is right.

Activist Post regularly reports about risks and harm caused by exposure to screens and other sources of wireless and electromagnetic technology. For more information visit our archives and the following websites:

Image credit: Pixabay

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