A few years ago, I went with my kids to tour a K-12 Christian school that we were considering for our family. I struck up a conversation with the principal and accidentally got myself a job offer to teach Honors/Dual Enrollment English in the high school while my girls patiently played with legos in the corner of the office. I had been out of the high school classroom for over a decade at this point, but I liked the principal and the other English teachers at this school and agreed to sit in on a class and consider the possibility of working in secondary education again.

I arrived a few days later to observe a 12th grade English class and watched 18-year-olds saunter into the classroom. Some sat down right away and got started on their “bell work” while others chatted nonchalantly with friends, unaware that class had started. It seemed things hadn’t changed much over the past twelve years since I had left high school teaching to enter my doctoral program.

Or so I thought.

This school boasted about its technology and every high schooler had a personal Chromebook to use for their coursework. The other two English teachers laughed about creating their teacher emojis and admitted they spent way too many hours each weekend tweaking their online classrooms. I smiled, but knowing they were both moms, I was a bit baffled at how they had the time to do this.

It turned out that “bell work” for these English classes involved each student pulling out his Chromebook at the start of class and writing brief answers to questions about the previous night's reading assignment — an exercise I have often done with pens and paper in my own classes. Though most students were diligent to complete the task, I wondered at the wisdom of using a tablet with this age group.

“Please put away your phone away and get out your tablet.” These instructions seemed contradictory to me.

I observed this group of teenagers. No doubt most of them scrolled their phone for hours a day already — before school, at lunch, after school, before bed. Must we really taint their English class with yet another device? Could we not give them reprieve from a glowing screen for 50 minutes a day and let them flip the tangible pages of a novel? Something didn’t sit well with me. If we lament the hours that our teens spend on devices, why in the world would we require them to use one at school?

I did not end up taking the high school teaching job, but in the years since that fateful observation day, I’ve steeled myself against the prevailing belief that digital devices belong in K-12 classes. A year or so later, I found my way back to a middle school classroom where I was observing a student teacher. These 7th graders used Chromebooks to take notes for their current research project… but why require this if we know that information is retained better when students write on paper?

And then came the post-Covid tales… parents noticing the entire school day being done on tablets, teachers confessing that they had to meet minimum quotas for time students spent “learning” on devices, horrifying stories of kids easily slipping past blocking mechanisms and perusing YouTube or the Internet with no restrictions, awful bullying enabled by school computers, and administrators admitting that device reliance and online learning games had made teachers lazy with classroom instruction.

I am convinced more than ever that personal devices are not necessary or even beneficial for student learning. Here are my responses to some of the main arguments I hear from those who try to advocate for or justify online learning for kids.

Reason #1: They need to figure out technology now because it’s going to be a part of their future. Kids figure out technology naturally without having it forced on them at school. Most three-or-four-year-olds can navigate a tablet or open apps on a phone. My 8-year-old daughter regularly steals my phone (with permission) to text her grandma or aunt. Our children are growing up in a high-tech world and they are going to be just fine. No extra training needed.

Reason #2: They need to figure out technology since they’ll use it at their job someday. Technology is always changing. Very few of the specific devices/software/platforms that we use today will be relevant in 10-20 years. Hardware changes. When I was 17, I had a pager. At 23, I had a flip phone. At age 29, I got my first smart phone. At the end of college, I turned in a huge writing project on a floppy disk. Now I can’t even locate a disk drive. Software changes. I learned to layout a newspaper in high school on Adobe Pagemaker then switched to Quark XPress in college, and now everyone uses Adobe InDesign. Social media changes. We went from AOL Instant Messenger and MySpace to Facebook and Instagram and now all the kids are on TikTok. I fear there may be a new popular social media app before I push publish on this article. It doesn’t make sense for your child to spend too much time training on any specific device, platform, or program because it will likely evolve or be replaced entirely by the time he or she is a working professional.

Reason #3: Doing online work in high school will prepare them for college. Despite the rapid technological changes that take place in our world everyday — you can buy an electric car and a robot can write your business emails for you — college learning management systems have hardly changed at all in the past 20 years. It’s a bit embarrassing for my profession when you consider how basic and uninspiring college online classes are. I promise you need no prior experience to be successful with the technological requirements of college. When you need to take a quiz online, click “quiz.” If you are supposed to write a discussion post for your classmates, click “discussion.” Do not a waste a minute of high school preparing for the online rigors of college; they simply don’t exist. And if you need to learn advanced technological skills in college, such as CAD or the Adobe Suite, we will teach you when you arrive. If you’re really eager, you could participate in a summer camp or workshop to prepare. You don’t need to bury your face in a tablet for four years to get ready.

Reason #4: The games and programs on these devices can augment and reinforce learning. Yes, they can. I am not against math or reading games in moderation. My daughters practice phonics online or use typing.com to master QWERTY. But these games should reinforce learning, not replace it. Research shows that the deepest learning takes place when students write manually. Why would we give our children anything less than the best learning environment available?

Reason #5: The devices used in school have adequate controls and block dangerous content. No, they don’t. You can read 3,000,678 stories online right now about how kids can often and easily circumvent the controls and blocking mechanisms on school-issued tablets. You can read tales about bullying and sexual exploitation taking place on these "learning tools." And even if your child is using his device appropriately, it doesn’t mean the kid sitting next to him is. Many students get exposed to illicit content by a peer. Any time a child or teen is using a digital device, they should be supervised carefully by a loving adult. This cannot happen in a large school setting where there may be 20 to 30 kids in a classroom with one teacher. Based on numbers alone, digital devices should not be used in this setting.

I can guess by now that most of you are nodding heartily in agreement as you read my arguments. Most parents I know are sick of ever-present screens and the harms they bring, but I know a few of you will be saying, “But wait! Online learning helped my kid in this way…” so let me give a few caveats to set everyone at ease:

Exception #1: It’s okay to learn specific computer skills or programs. I am not against a computer class in elementary school where kids learn basic skills such as typing or saving files. However, even in these classes, there should be a healthy student to teacher ratio of no more than 15:1, so that students are closely monitored during the class time. Older students could take a class in Adobe or coding, but these classes will happen best outside of school. There are countless companies and organizations that host classes or camps for kids to learn these skills in a smaller environment with a professional trainer. They could also take these classes at home using a reputable online program with parental supervision.

Exception #2: It’s okay to take a real college class. There is no reason to “do” high school on a tablet or laptop to prepare for college. As a professor, I can promise you that students rarely use computers or tablets in the majority of their classes (unless it’s computer science or architecture or another highly digital field). But a great way to prepare for college is for your student to take a real college class while still in high school. These classes are typically called “dual credit” or “concurrent classes” and they help teens get a head start on college. Students can enroll in lower-division classes at a college (either locally or online) and earn credits that will be applied to their transcript when they start college. These classes are incredibly affordable -- often just $100-$300 per class (much cheaper than regular college tuition). This a good way to get students prepared for the rigors of college and familiar with an online learning platform without asking them to stare at a tablet in all of their high school classes. (*See footnotes for a special deal on concurrent classes.)

Exception #3: It’s okay to use a specific online curriculum. In rare cases, a student will actually learn better with a specific online program for math or reading. Sometimes this is due to learning disabilities or attention deficits. Or sometimes a highly specialized program for a student with autism or dyslexia in not available locally but can be accessed online. These are valid reasons to use an online program for a core subject, but this only works well in a homeschool or microschool environment, where an adult is engaged in the learning process and supervising the technology use at all times. Again, just because digital learning might work in a controlled environment for a specific child, does not mean it’s wise or best to use these same programs in a classroom with 30 kids.

Here’s the bottom line: Tablets and devices don’t belong in K-12 classrooms. Research shows that screens diminish learning in almost every context. And even if you can find some tiny benefit to using screens, the dangers of pornography exposure, increased bullying, and attention and memory impairment far outweigh any minuscule gain.

Reject the idea that kids need to sit on screens all day to prepare for their future careers. In my real job, I don’t sit on a computer all day. I go to meetings, I problem solve and negotiate face-to-face, I jot notes in a real notebook, I take phone calls, I sketch out ideas and to-do lists on a whiteboard… then I go back to my office and type a document or send an email, but it’s probably less than 30% of my week. Doctors, dentists, firefighters, police officers, social workers, nurses, shop owners, chefs, roofers (and, hopefully, teachers) don’t sit on a computer all day either. They use their hands, they converse with clients, patients, and students, they create things, they care for the people and the environment around them. Then they use their computer to chart notes or send emails, but they aren’t glued to it all day. And if your child is destined for a computer-centric job in accounting or IT, then let him enjoy these few fleeting years of childhood without a screen in his face.

This is the truth: Your child does school on a screen right now so the tech companies can make a profit and because it’s easier for teachers and administrators to dole out assignments and track data on a device. It’s not because digital education is good for your child.

Give your child the richest education you can — one without a screen. Let them read, write, touch, play, perform, and create in deep ways. Trade in the pixels, the pornography, and the mindless discussion posts for an education that is full of paint and play and the (real) pages of books.

Related Reading:

Online Education: A Tale of One Pint Too Many​

​Get Tech Out of the Classroom Before It's Too Late​

​The Anxious Generation​

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More studies on why handwriting and print books are better for brain development:

​Writing on Paper Stimulates Brain Activity​

​The Case for Paper​

​Paper versus Screens​

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*If your teen is interested in taking a concurrent class this fall for a discounted rate of $150 per college course, please reply to this email and let me know. Students must be 15 years old. Classes can be taken locally in Arizona or online from any location.