This report documents just how addicted they are:
The most enriching, eye-opening learning experience happened nowhere near my child’s school this year.
For 45 years, the Parkway School District has sent its sixth-graders to an overnight outdoor school on YMCA campgrounds a couple hours away by school bus. It used to be a weeklong program until budget cuts eliminated a day.
“We talk about connecting with nature,” said Ron Ramspott, coordinator for Healthy Youth Programs for the district. “It’s really about disconnecting with electronics.”
My daughter’s class recently took the four-day trek into the wilderness (a very tamed wilderness as all the cabins have air conditioning and electricity) for lessons on water ecology, wildlife, soil quality, along with outdoor activities such as horseback riding and hiking.
The most daunting aspect is the absolute ban on any digital devices for the entire duration of the trip.
“We weren’t sure we were going to make it,” my daughter said.
One of her friends packed grid paper in case she got Minecraft DTs.
Twelve is the perfect age for such an immersive off-the-grid experience. It may be the first time in their conscious lives that they don’t have a tech device nearby for four consecutive days. They are part of that first cohort who won’t remember a time before ubiquitous handheld screens. They were toddlers when YouTube was born. Google, only four years older than them, has been their constant guide.
Removing them from their hyper-connected, screen-saturated environments offered some of the most significant lessons of the year.
They immediately noticed the loss of instant access to information.
“If you wanted to know how to do something, you had to look it up in the field guide or ask a teacher,” my daughter said. “You couldn’t just search it.”
It’s not surprising how often questions strike a sixth-grader. During a class outside, a student wondered what the most common rock in Missouri was. No phone to find an answer. On the bus, a student wanted to solve a Rubik’s Cube. She couldn’t Google the solution. They couldn’t check the time or set an alarm without resorting to anachronisms like watches and alarm clocks.
In addition to finding new ways to access information and solve problems, they had to manage new ways to communicate.
“We couldn’t contact our friends on the other teams (through texting),” my daughter said. If you needed to talk to someone, you had to do it face-to-face. Imagine that.
The hardest part for her was being unable to document the experience through the 24/7 camera they carry in their pockets.
“There were lots of things I wasn’t able to take pictures of,” she said. That was annoying. After all, this is the pics-or-it-didn’t-happen generation.
Eventually, the impulse to constantly document lessened, and the moment took on its own value. The camaraderie was vital.
http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/relationships-and-special-occasions/parenting/aisha-sultan/what-happens-when-schools-send--year-olds-completely-off/article_5c226b30-7701-5e7f-bd48-9b92f4cd43e2.html
An entirely new world has been created, and our children live in it. Soon everyone's children will live in it.
Is this a good thing? School immerses them in the new world, and without an external frame of reference, they have no way of knowing.
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