ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) 鈥� For high school senior Aliyah Pack, getting distracted during school is the norm. Kids in her Pennsylvania school district use iPads starting in kindergarten, switch to Chromebooks in second grade and get their own MacBooks in eighth grade.
Aliyah has ADHD, and finds it difficult to concentrate when she鈥檚 learning from a screen. She鈥檒l watch Netflix in class on her school laptop, hiding her earbuds behind her long, curly hair.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very hard to get into the mindset of being in school,鈥� Aliyah said.
Aliyah鈥檚 mother saw her grades were falling and asked the school to take away her laptop. But she was told that wasn鈥檛 possible.
Across the country, parents are voicing concerns about excessive and lobbying educators to go back to pencil and paper. In places like Lower Merion Township, where Aliyah goes to high school, some are taking it even further. Over 600 people in the affluent Philadelphia suburb have signed a petition asking to preserve parents’ ability to opt their children out of using digital devices during the school day. The public school district has pushed back, saying it鈥檚 not feasible to let hundreds of students opt out of technology that is essential to the curriculum.
Disagreement over how tech is used in the classroom
At a meeting Monday night, school board members said they were considering many ways to respond to parental concerns about technology, but allowing opt-outs was not one of them.
鈥淭here is not an option for us to not have technology in schools,鈥� said Lower Merion School Board member Anna Shurak.
The board was meeting to discuss updates to the district鈥檚 technology policies, including repealing a policy that allows opt outs. Over 100 people showed up to protest, many wearing buttons that said 鈥淪creens Down, Pencils Up.鈥�
Many emphasized they鈥檙e not anti-tech 鈥� in fact, most parents agree that learning how to responsibly use computers is an essential life skill. They just don鈥檛 want tech to dominate the classroom.
鈥淭eaching how to use technology is not the same thing as using technology to teach everything else,鈥� said Sara Sullivan, a parent.
Technology has become inescapable at schools
The debate in Lower Merion raises the question of whether technology has become so intertwined with learning that it鈥檚 impossible to opt out. Kids use devices to play educational games, submit their homework, access online resources and write essays 鈥� but parents are questioning the value of gamified edtech software.
Subashini Subramanian said the software her second-grade daughter uses for math, DreamBox, incentivizes rushing through levels to gain points. When she encouraged her daughter to think through the problems methodically, the 8-year-old said, 鈥淚f I go through all the steps, it鈥檚 slowing me down. I have to click, click, click.鈥�
At the school board meeting, many parents said they were exhausted from battling their kids over screen time. Adam Washington says his son struggles with screen addiction, so sometimes he takes away his phone or TV 鈥� only to find him watching YouTube on the school laptop instead.
鈥淭he screen is killing him. It is killing me, and him, together with our relationship,鈥� Washington said.
Another parent at the meeting questioned what students would do instead of using their computers.
鈥淥pting out is not a solution. It鈥檚 avoiding the hard work of finding a solution,鈥� Seth Ruderman said.
Parental pushback on edtech has led to change
The pushback on technology in the classroom has gained steam around the country. At least 14 states have proposed laws to limit screen time in schools, according to Ballotpedia, with four states 鈥� Alabama, Tennessee, Utah and Iowa 鈥� passing such legislation.
In Los Angeles, the nation鈥檚 second-largest school district said it will ban screens until second grade, require daily caps for screen time per grade, ban YouTube and require an audit of all education technology contracts.
In Vermont, proposed legislation would allow not just parents but also teachers to decline to use classroom tech. Democratic State Rep. Angela Arsenault, a bill co-sponsor, said she鈥檚 responding to parents’ worries about edtech.
鈥淧arents in many districts and states just aren鈥檛 being listened to or not being heard when they ask that their students not be forced to use these products,鈥� Arsenault said.
The Lower Merion school district said it鈥檚 listening to community concerns and has already made changes, including blocking some problematic websites flagged by parents.
鈥淲e have wonderful teachers who have continuously prioritized human interaction and relationships,鈥� Superintendent Frank Ranelli wrote in a letter to parents. He declined to comment to the AP for this story.
The district said it is looking into possible changes, including stronger cellphone restrictions, not allowing the youngest students to take devices home and installing software to monitor students in class.
However, surveillance software can and poses . In 2010, the Lower Merion School District paid $610,000 to settle lawsuits by two students who alleged the district had spied on them via the webcam on their school-issued laptops.
Kids want ways to hold themselves accountable
High school student Mia Tatar, 16, raised concerns at the board meeting that there鈥檚 been an unintended consequence to the anti-tech backlash. The internet filters on school computers are now so strict, she said she鈥檚 been blocked while doing research on appropriate topics for school, like breast cancer.
Mia said students need to learn how to responsibly use technology, and adding filters or getting rid of laptops won鈥檛 do that.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 teach kids how to hold themselves accountable and how to be responsible for regulating their own screen time once they鈥檙e in the world,鈥� Mia said in an interview.
Her friend Elliot Campbell, 15, said there should be strict limits on screen use in the youngest grades, but students should get more freedom as they get older.
鈥淚f we lose our laptops or if we lose the partial freedom we have on them, it鈥檚 not going to prepare us for college,鈥� Elliot told board members at the hearing.
Fellow high schooler Joaquin Imaizumi takes a different view. He said it鈥檚 鈥渃ompletely unfair鈥� to expect children to regulate their usage of devices that even adults find addictive.
鈥淭his isn鈥檛 about learning to constrain yourself,鈥� he said in an interview. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 give someone drugs and say, 鈥極K, now learn how to deal with this.鈥欌��
His biggest concern is that devices make it far too tempting to access AI tools like ChatGPT, which he sees eroding his classmates’
鈥淚鈥檝e seen the atrophy of my peers鈥� thinking, which is existentially concerning,鈥� Joaquin said.
The influence of AI starts early. A second-grader named Lillian Keshet, who got up to speak at the board meeting, said Google Docs will give her 鈥渟uggestions鈥� about what to write in class.
鈥淚鈥檓 a pretty good writer by myself,鈥� Lillian said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 need your suggestions, Google!鈥�
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Associated Press writer Jocelyn Gecker contributed to this report from San Francisco.
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