I truly didn’t appreciate the ease of the elementary school supply process until now.
At Bastion Elementary, and others in the city, parents do not have to buy school supplies directly for their students. Instead they pay a flat rate fee and each child is supplied with the same basic kit of crayons, pencils and the like.
Except for some indoor shoes, school shopping was done in the time it took to write a cheque.
Not so in the higher grades. And with my eldest daughter now entering the brave, new world of middle school, I also reluctantly began the task of purchasing all the items on the list. Calculators, zippered binders, felt pens and scissors all went into the shopping cart, along with enough other stuff that made my Mastercard wince when we got up to the till.
But there is one thing my daughter won’t be carrying when she begins Grade 6 – a cell phone.
To be fair, I do have my own phone and it does see near-daily use both for work and social connections. However, I’m an adult, not a 10-year-old.
Research is showing that those iPads, smartphones and Xboxes are a form of digital drug. Brain imaging research from Dr. Peter Whybrow, director of neuroscience at UCLA, is showing that these devices affect the brain’s frontal cortex – which controls executive functioning, including impulse control – in exactly the same way that cocaine does.
Screen time is a battle I fight on a daily basis already. I use timers to try and prevent myself from becoming distracted and forgetting about screen limits.
I refuse to allow screens when my kids have play dates, other than the occasional movie night. Funnily enough, these kids usually managed to have themselves a fine time doing crafts, playing tag outside or building forts.
My own concerns about excessive screen time use were reinforced by Shuswap Middle School principal Silke Yardley at last May’s new parents meeting.
Phones are not banned at the middle school. But they are discouraged. There’s a free landline phone for kids to use and frankly, I walked home without my mom needing to text me.
Smartphones are disruptive in class, can be used for cheating and far, far worse, are a major contributor to online bullying. And if parents think Shuswap kids are immune from the pitfalls of sexting, sending inappropriate or humiliating photographs or just being plain old nasty to each other, they should give their heads a shake.
Yardley pointed out that much of the inappropriate online behaviour took place outside of school hours, (especially when the teens and pre-teens are on their phones alone late at night) but it can have serious impacts on school life.
There will certainly come a day when my daughter does get her own phone. But I’m going to be the mean mom who won’t let her for quite a while longer.
