WATCHING WHAT THEY’RE WATCHING
At the Parents/Teachers welcome evening, I addressed one particular problem linked to the use of technology at home by students; namely, the time your children spend on social media or video games. After conducting a survey amongst Year 10 and Year 11 students, I discovered that your children are spending 4 to 6 hours on school days and 8 to 12 hours on weekends looking at a screen of some sort. This survey was in fact a questionnaire which also required them, amongst other things, to name their favourite painter or composer. Only one student could name a famous painter and most of them had never heard of Mozart. This is worrying and reveals a dangerous addiction to social media, detrimentally to quality time which could be spent on worthwhile research, watching the news or conversing with you. This could place them at a serious disadvantage at a university or job interview.
Are you asleep at night when they are not?
Please also make sure you know how your children are using technology. Our classroom computers have restrictions on which sites can be used. If yours doesn’t, consider adding them or checking the search history to know what your children are doing. Keep up with what young people are into. Vine, Snapchat, or whatever the latest online trend is, stay current so you can recognize and head off any problems early on.
Are you in control when they are not? Please open this link: http://time.com/4096797/teens-media-phone-use-myths-truths/
Sylvie Wigglesworth
Principal |