Sudbury, Ont., parent advocating for removal of screens from classrooms in younger grades
CBC
A family doctor and mother of four young children in Sudbury doesn't think she's the only one concerned about the prevalence of not only cellphones, but all electronic screens, in elementary school classrooms on a daily basis.
Dr. Emily Dubé started to think about the issue two years ago following her daughter's first year of kindergarten.
She said she discovered that screens weren't used solely for educational purposes, although it's difficult to get an accurate picture because different teachers use technology differently.
When she took her concerns to the school, she said she was told she was among a minority and that she should leave teaching to the professionals.
That's when she decided to find out if she was in the minority.
She doesn't think she is.
Dubé started a survey and says so far 125 parents support her idea of at least a cohort or a school opting out of screens in daily teaching.
"We are looking at all smart screen use," she said.
"And so that's your smart boards that are essentially smart TV's that can play YouTube videos or whatever video you like or educational apps. We are talking about Chromebooks in the kindergarten classes, or any class at all, of iPads."
She does see a role for screens limited to instruction in a computer lab, but says daily exposure poses a health risk.
Dubé cites studies from the province's auditor general, information and privacy commissioner, COVID-19 science table and UNESCO as all raising issues about children's health.
"The research on them is quite strong that they pose health risks even when used for educational purposes," she said. "And so those are behavioural difficulties, social difficulties, problems with attention. You're looking at difficulty in language developments. We see children with headaches."
In addition, Dubé doesn't feel technology is leading to better education for young children pointing to students' performance on provincial literacy and numeracy tests.
Another of her concerns is about privacy, particularly the collection of behavioural information from students without their consent to be sold to advertising and technology companies.