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Children Learn Best When Their Bodies Are Engaged in the Living World. We Must Resist the Ideology of Screen-Based Learning (aeon.co)

Nicholas Tampio, associate professor of political science at Fordham University in New York, writing for Aeon magazine: As a parent, it is obvious that children learn more when they engage their entire body in a meaningful experience than when they sit at a computer. If you doubt this, just observe children watching an activity on a screen and then doing the same activity for themselves. They are much more engaged riding a horse than watching a video about it, playing a sport with their whole bodies rather than a simulated version of it in an online game.

Today, however, many powerful people are pushing for children to spend more time in front of computer screens, not less. Philanthropists such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have contributed millions of dollars to 'personal learning', a term that describes children working by themselves on computers, and Laurene Powell Jobs has bankrolled the XQ Super School project to use technology to 'transcend the confines of traditional teaching methodologies'. Policymakers such as the US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos call personalised learning 'one of the most promising developments in K-12 education', and Rhode Island has announced a statewide personalised learning push for all public school students. Think tanks such as the Brookings Institution recommend that Latin-American countries build 'massive e-learning hubs that reach millions'. School administrators tout the advantages of giving all students, including those at kindergarten, personal computers.

Many adults appreciate the power of computers and the internet, and think that children should have access to them as soon as possible. Yet screen learning displaces other, more tactile ways to discover the world. Human beings learn with their eyes, yes, but also their ears, nose, mouth, skin, heart, hands, feet. The more time kids spend on computers, the less time they have to go on field trips, build model airplanes, have recess, hold a book in their hands, or talk with teachers and friends. In the 21st century, schools should not get with the times, as it were, and place children on computers for even more of their days. Instead, schools should provide children with rich experiences that engage their entire bodies.

2 of 289 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Gee, you don't say... by murdocj · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yep, ignorance was good enough for pappy and grandpappy, it's good enough for junior too!

    Seriously, how many kids are going to get an education with home schooling? Other than learning that God created the world in 7 days and only likes white people?

  2. Re:More playtime, less school by jellomizer · · Score: 1, Troll

    Well division of labor over gender is Sexism.
    However, I think get your actual point. The move to Equal Rights did have a trade-off that seem to negatively affect family structure. Communities are vacant from 9-5. And we rely on institutions to care for our children while families are out working.

    I think one of the biggest issues was while the culture changed for Equal Rights, business culture didn't change.

    Many jobs (where the work conditions are safe) could allow you to have your kids with you all day, and if enough other kids are there too, they can be playing in the office together with the other employees keeping an eye out for them, and yourself keeping an eye on the other children too.
    But most businesses want to keep the "professional" image standard. And if children are bought to work they are placed in a Day Care setting. Where you can be Mr. Office Drone, or Big Boss Man. while the kids are in a protected environment.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.