Table Of ContentSCREEN
SCHOOLED
Two Veteran Teachers Expose How
Technology Overuse Is Making Our Kids Dumber
Joe Clement and Matt Miles
282517FWF_SCHOOLED_cs6_pc.indd 1 13/07/2017 10:56:43
Copyright © 2018 by Joe Clement and Matt Miles
All rights reserved
First edition
Published by Chicago Review Press Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN 978‑1‑61373‑951‑8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Is available from the Library of Congress.
Cover design: Marc Whitaker / MTWdesign.net
Typesetting: Nord Compo
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
282517FWF_SCHOOLED_cs6_pc.indd 2 13/07/2017 10:56:43
Contents
Authors’ Note v
Introduction vii
1 These Kids Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 The Myth of the Technology‑Enhanced
Superkid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3 Reclaiming Your Child’s Ability to Think . . . . 47
4 Learning to Focus in the High‑Tech World
of Distraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5 Escaping the Digital World of Anxiety . . . . . . 107
6 Reestablishing Support from Home . . . . . . . 127
7 Revitalizing Social Interaction . . . . . . . . . . 145
8 Technology Is Widening—Not Closing—
the Achievement Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
9 The Education‑Industrial Complex . . . . . . . 187
10 Ideal Education in a Modern World . . . . . . . 211
Acknowledgments 237
Sources 239
Index 255
282517FWF_SCHOOLED_cs6_pc.indd 3 13/07/2017 10:56:43
282517FWF_SCHOOLED_cs6_pc.indd 4 13/07/2017 10:56:43
Authors’ Note
To protect the identity of students, parents, and col‑
leagues, some names and minor details have been changed.
For ease of reading, we’ve written the book in one voice and one
point of view, but it was written together in full partnership. It rep‑
resents a composite of both authors’ ideas and experiences. Finally,
we should note that the opinions expressed in this book are our
own. We are not in any way speaking on behalf of our employer.
We would like to encourage parents, educators, scientists, and
others to engage with us about the critical issues discussed in this
book. (We recognize the irony of using technology to connect with
readers, but would categorize this as an example of the productive
and collaborative uses of technology we’re seeing too little of in
schools today.) Please visit us online at www.screenschooled.com
to learn more about us and the book, at www.paleoeducation
.com to learn more about the research driving this movement
and about ways to teach and learn simpler, and at our Google
community “Beyond the Screens” to share ideas and resources
with like‑minded parents and professionals.
v
282517FWF_SCHOOLED_cs6_pc.indd 5 13/07/2017 10:56:43
282517FWF_SCHOOLED_cs6_pc.indd 6 13/07/2017 10:56:43
Introduction
Make a list of ten things that kids today need. Go ahead.
I’ll wait.
Thanks for doing that. Now look at that list. Does it include
“more screen time”? I didn’t think so. Mine doesn’t either. If I had
asked you to make a list of twenty things kids today need, would
“more screen time” have been on that one? How about if it were
a list of a hundred or a thousand things that kids need? The point
is that while there is nearly universal agreement that kids today
do not need more time on screens, schools are doing what they
can to make sure kids spend more time on screens.
Matt and I have been teaching for over thirty combined years.
We have taught thirteen different subjects to students in six differ‑
ent grades. We coach three different sports and routinely interact
with students all over the age, socioeconomic, racial, and social
spectrums. We also have kids of our own, ranging in age from
one to eighteen. When it comes to kids, we certainly have not
seen it all, but we’ve seen a lot. We have also interviewed dozens
of colleagues, scientists, and politicians and have read everything
we can about the intersection of digital technologies and the way
kids learn. We are in a unique position to share with parents what
is happening in schools when it comes to screen usage and how
it’s affecting our kids. In short, it’s not good.
vii
282517FWF_SCHOOLED_cs6_pc.indd 7 13/07/2017 10:56:43
viii Introduction
You may well be thinking, These are just two curmudgeonly,
angry teachers railing against these “young whippersnappers and
their newfangled contraptions.” Not exactly. While we are teachers,
we are neither curmudgeonly, angry, nor antitechnology. I’d like to
think we’re too young to be curmudgeonly, and we love teaching
far too much to be angry. As far as our comfort with technology,
I was a UNIX system administrator before becoming a teacher.
Matt was an IT major in college before a last‑minute switch to
education. He is his department’s “technology representative” and
teaches other teachers how to use the school’s grading, test cre‑
ation, and attendance software. We are more proficient in Excel
and Access than any teachers we know. But several years ago, the
two of us began to question a notion that we were hearing with
greater frequency—that more screens and technology should be
incorporated into young people’s education. This idea was repeated
over and over in educational circles, so much that it just became
accepted as truth. Schools all over the country began spending
billions of dollars on educational technology and requiring teach‑
ers to incorporate it into their classrooms.
Before this time, educational technology, or “ed‑tech,” was
something used in the background of education, designed to
help solve administrative problems. Old paper gradebooks were
replaced with digital ones. These programs did the calculations
for teachers and made posting grades much easier. Attendance
was also digitized. Teachers could mark a student absent, and an
automated phone call home could be made with the click of a
button. Then schools started adopting teacher webpages where all
the digital materials used in a class could be posted. Now students
could access materials they either missed or lost without having
to ask the teacher for copies of their notes and handouts. All of
these changes made the lives of the teachers, administrators, and
students much easier and didn’t interfere with educational goals.
282517FWF_SCHOOLED_cs6_pc.indd 8 13/07/2017 10:56:43
Introduction ix
But by the mid‑2000s ed‑tech’s focus became more student
centered. Increasingly, lessons and instruction were digitized and
automated. Schools began spending heavily on laptops and iPads.
Online textbooks replaced paper ones. Teachers were trained in
the latest and greatest educational software. We were shown how
to incorporate YouTube clips into presentations, set up web‑based
scavenger hunts, and replace our old, boring PowerPoints with
“Prezis” (essentially PowerPoint with more spinning and move‑
ment). When students found these projects cheesy (because they
were still educational), teachers were encouraged to kick it up a
notch. “We need to meet kids where they are” is a phrase echoed
at every ed‑tech presentation. Now teachers are encouraged to
use laptops and iPads in every class. Instead of introducing edu‑
cation through educational software, teachers are now struggling
to cram education into the technology with which young people
are comfortable, like social media and video games.
But with all this talk about “paradigm shifts” and catchy slogans
like “Meet kids where they are,” everyone was glossing over the
most important question: Is this what is best for students? Edu‑
cators have become so consumed with how to incorporate more
technology into the education of young people that they forgot to
ask, Should we do this? Ed‑tech firms, with their large marketing
budgets, had convinced parents and educators alike that their
products are necessary for future student success.
However, these messages contradicted everything Matt and I
were seeing in children. It seemed obvious that students weren’t
benefiting from the technology in their lives. Rather, they were
quickly transforming into technology addicts. They were con‑
sumed by video games and social media. Technology seemed to be
shaping their social interactions and even how they thought. I
decided to take an in‑depth look at the claims of ed‑tech firms.
I noticed that too often there wasn’t any actual evidence supporting
282517FWF_SCHOOLED_cs6_pc.indd 9 13/07/2017 10:56:43
