Screens and children: the problem is not school
Last weekend, I took advantage of a trip to Alicante to visit Pedro Montengón, who has been dead for 200 years. I like, if I have time, to reciprocate sentimentally with the authors who have provided me with good moments of intimate reading, and, in addition to listening to them with my eyes, I try to see them with my feet. At the beginning of the street that bears his name, a plaque commemorates him with these words: "Pedro Montengón i Paret (Alicante, 1745 - Naples, 1824). Jesuit and writer. He composed poetry, odes, and novels, some of them successful, such as Eusebio".
Montengón never felt comfortable as a Jesuit, and the Jesuits never trusted his doctrinal orthodoxy. His motto was: "There is nothing more credulous than ignorance." Pedagogically, two of his books are worthy of mention: Eusebio (1786-88), an educational novel, and Curious and erudite frioleras for public instruction (1801).
Eusebio It is an attempt to introduce Rousseau's pedagogical ideas, including that of the noble savage, into Spain without inquisitorial hindrance. With a distinctly pre-Romantic tone, he spread the good news of philanthropy, education, peace, tolerance, and happiness in a Spain that was bleeding itself dry in the war against the French. It sold 70,000 copies, earning the author no less than 30,000 reales.
The Triolera They were intended to promote "entertaining, easy, and fun education for all kinds of people." They certainly have the unique quality of being much more curious than the author suspected. In their pages, for example, we find the first defense of screens in education. To prove I'm not exaggerating in the least, I'll let the author speak:
"On a new method of teaching children to spell through play. Everyone should be interested in alleviating the weakness and infirmity of childhood by facilitating the first steps of their instruction without the child realizing it, since the first letters are often difficult for them. darkened chamber and presenting them with a canvas on the wall with illuminated letters or syllables, which is achieved by placing a light behind the oiled paper. memorize those signs that are best impressed by sight in their imagination. Various experiments have been carried out with children of various talents, with happy success. This same method can also be used to teach children the principles of languages, geography and geometry, and all other rudiments in which figures are useful or necessary to learn them."
On my way back from Alicante, I sat on a bench at the airport's commuter train station. A young woman sat next to me, pushing a baby boy about six months old in a stroller. The woman took out her phone and dived in. The baby started wailing, his arms stretched out toward his mother. She held the phone in her right hand while mechanically moving the stroller with her left. The baby continued wailing and stretching his arms, but I suddenly realized he wasn't stretching them toward his mother, but toward the phone.
There are plenty of gadgets on Amazon that might be useful to adults who want to wean their children off screens, such as "gooseneck cell phone clamps for strollers." They are sold with "a protective pad to protect the stroller from scratches." The manufacturers claim that they help "relieve children of irritability and impatience" and that, thanks to them, "your children will be entertained while you stroll with them watching movies or cartoons."
It's important to recognize this: cell phone use is not a school problem. It's a family problem. No evidence supports school policies that, in their current form, prohibit phone use during the school day. Bans do not guarantee better grades or better mental well-being. It seems certain that cell phone dependence smartphones It is associated with poorer academic outcomes, but attempts to restrict its use in school do not reduce – and may even increase – the total time adolescents spend on their digital devices outside of school.
