Jeff Frank, St. Lawrence University – Thinking Philosophically about Screentime in Schools

Screen time in schools isn’t going away, how do we make it make it the best it can be?

Jeff Frank, professor of education at St. Lawrence University, examines.

Jeff Frank is a philosopher of education. He is a professor of education at St. Lawrence University, and the inaugural director of St. Lawrence’s Center for Innovation in Teaching and Assessment.

Thinking Philosophically about Screentime in Schools

Technology was a necessity when schools closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. For even the youngest of children, their only access to school was through a screen.

Now that we’ve emerged from the pandemic, it is time to ask practical and philosophical questions about the place of screens and screentime in schools.

On the practical side, parents need to know how much time their children spend on screens. School leaders need to evaluate the effectiveness of the devices and programs children are using. Citizens deserve to know about the costs and benefits of the technology public schools are purchasing.

Philosophically, we need to ask better questions about the purposes of education. An important rationale for public education is that is facilitates civic learning. Students come to the school with different backgrounds, and schools teach children how to civilly interact with peers who hold different religious, political, and social views than they do.

If students are always behind screens, how does this essential civic learning take place? And if students don’t learn essential civic skills in school, when will they learn them?

Another philosophical question we must ask concerns resilience. Screens became a form of comfort for many children. While the world around them felt scary and uncontrollable, the screen offered predictability.

But what is the cost of this comfort and sense of control? Teaching children the habit of relying on a screen to bring comfort robs children of the necessary skills of problem-solving, self-soothing, and resilience.

Finally, though screens offer easy engagement and entertainment, they are no substitute for the joy of meaningful and purposeful learning. I worry we are forgetting this.

Lack of joy caused by an overreliance on technology is demoralizing teachers and exhausting students.

We’ve been led to believe that schools need screens. It is time to ask better philosophical and practical questions about this belief.

Read More:
[Chalkbeat] –  Schoolwork shouldn’t double as screentime
[Journal of School & Society] – Sounding the Call to Teach in a Social Media Age: Renewing the Importance of Philosophy in Teacher Education
[NYT Opinion] – Every Tech Tool in the Classroom Should Be Ruthlessly Evaluated