Teenagers’ mathematics and reading skills are in an unprecedented decline across dozens of countries and COVID school closures are only partly to be blamed, the OECD said on Tuesday in its latest survey of global learning standards.

  • tygerprints
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    41 year ago

    Controversial maybe, but true. Less screen time would benefit all of us and really I don’t think kids NEED phones on them in school.

    Of course I’m a Boomer and I’m on my soapbox, and here we go again with “back in my day…” we didn’t have cell phones and it was actually nice to feel independent of having to check in with other people throughout the day. I still don’t see the attraction, but I know that prying kids from their cell phones will be a Herculean task.

    • Hyperreality
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      61 year ago

      The problem is that a lot of (admittedly overstretched) parents use the phone as a pacifier and don’t monitor use much if at all.

      Tommy’s being a little shit? Give him the phone so he’s distracted.

      Of course, if little Tommy’s never learnt to deal with being bored, keeping quiet for half an hour, and never learnt to concentrate for longer than the length of a tiktok video, he’s going to have trouble adapting to education.

    • @anon_8675309
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      51 year ago

      I agree with this. However, I was more talking about the use of computers for everything. Reading, math, etc are done in computers now. Students retain more information when they have to write it out on paper.

      • tygerprints
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        31 year ago

        Also I think writing things out is a great way to just improve your basic writing skills. And also, it sometimes can help clarify your feelings about something. Like once I was writing a letter (just for fun) to complain about a product I bought and when writing it, it became apparent it wasn’t the product I was mad at but myself for making a snap purchase without thinking it through. But, I like writing, and I realize it isn’t everyone’s favorite way to pass the time.