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My nephews are being pulled out of public school after some issues my sister has had with their education (specifically, NCLB and such encourage schools to identify children as disabled if they are slow, then assess them at the 16th percentile - mainstreaming them - then, when the test come up, if they are hurting the school, bump them down to 15th percentile - which lets them be moved, on paper at least, in with the droolers who can't even eat without assistance, who are NCLB exempt, resulting in a class of student who are explicitly left behind because of NCLB, but that's what you get when you let Presidents who run on an anti-education platform "reform" education). But I looked at the school that she's putting them in, and they link to: http://drupal6.allianceforchildhood.org/fools_gold (probably as an excuse for being too cheap to buy computers, but they claim it's bad for the children to have computers in elementary).

Ironically, my sister, sending them to the anti-computer school has bought them a laptop each (well, "bought" being stole one of my old laptops and given it to one them, and bought the older one his own).

There's quite a bit of academic research supporting your view, saying kids thrive from unstructured outdoor play, and their development is stunted by too much screen time. One non-profit group that's been making this case is the Alliance for Childhood. Of course, there's a big "educational technology" industry out there, arguing the opposite.

A broader critique of technology for children, Tech Tonic: Towards a New Literacy of Technology , was recently released by the Alliance for Childhood.

The brain is wired by experience. How can hours of screen time each day not affect a child's development?

A broader critique of technology for children, Tech Tonic: Towards a New Literacy of Technology , was recently released by the Alliance for Childhood.

The brain is wired by experience. How can hours of screen time each day not affect a child's development?

The Alliance for Childhood studied this subject and published a report on Fool's Gold: A Critical Look at Computers in Childhood, which is worth a read.

The Alliance for Childhood studied this subject and published a report on Fool's Gold: A Critical Look at Computers in Childhood, which is worth a read.

A relevant resource in this field is the Alliance For Childhood, sponsored by Steve Talbott of NetFuture fame.

I've been following NetFuture for years now, it's a very interesting newsletter about the relationship between technology and human society.