Why Should Schools Be Unplugged?
Why Should Schools Be Unplugged? A Brief Summary.
(Steven Larson, November 2026).
After having the educational establishment fall in love with technology for a decade or more now, it’s obvious that, even while society as a whole is tech-dependent, it’s vital that schools return to being either low-tech or no-tech. The reasons are mostly common sense as we acknowledge what we see around us:
(1.) Technology in the classrooms is costly. All the equipment start-up costs, the hardware and software, the maintenance, the trained staff, even the electricity needed… Think of how this raises tuition costs and the general budget concerns. The money saved by going low-tech could lower tuition, or pay for more learning tools such as books, field trips, etc, and for increased numbers of flesh and blood teachers for the classrooms.
(2.) Most children already see enough of screens. Why should the schools continue to enable the screen addiction and tech-dependence that has already taken hold of children’s lives? All the research is shouting out for us all to hear… Excessive time spent on screens and technology has resulted in stunted emotional growth, sleep deprivation, a disconnect from nature and the great outdoors, increased anxiety and depression, obesity, decreased physical activity because of a sedentary lifestyle, stunted social development and disconnect from people, elevated aggressiveness, heightened impatience and distractibility, decreased curiosity and motivation to learn and explore. And we can’t forget the moral development of the children being so exposed to pornography, violence, the betting culture, and the general idiocy of the social media. So why would we want the schools to increase a child’s appetite for screens and technology? And now for the dramatic decrease in academic achievement and learning in schools…
(3.) Tech-dependence is destroying the brain development of our children. Academic achievement has never been lower, and the U.S. is at or near the bottom when compared with the other developed nations. In our high-tech society, there is no better time for a low-tech learning environment. Virtual learning is living up to its own definition… sort-of learning, almost learning, not fully real learning, not actual learning. Screen addictions are only getting worse. From calculators to computers, we have allowed machines to do our thinking for us far too often and our critical thinking skills have suffered. It has become far too easy to let smart phones and chrome-books replace social interaction and active brain exercise. Data and information have replaced wisdom and understanding. Attention spans have shrunk to alarming levels, and now children literally have shorter attentions spans than a goldfish. Quick-changing images and split-screen TV programs are producing minds that are constantly distracted and can’t focus on one thing at a time. Visual entertainment has replaced active mental functioning as a teaching method. It is becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to discern what is real or fake, AI music or genuine music, an authentic photograph or something photoshopped, a false podcast or a true one. AI is advancing so miraculously that cheating has become normal on school assignments. In an era when it is becoming almost impossible to trust what we see and hear, students need to be equipped for the onslaught of fakeness by a home and school that will strengthen their whole minds to know what to believe, to shrewdly discern what is true and real and what isn’t. Our society is grooming all of us to become dependent on technology for practically everything, but that doesn’t have to be true for education. Schools do not have to be plugged into machines or mediated by technology, and in fact will be more successful if they are not. Schoolchildren should instead be taught incarnationally, by flesh and blood people, through personal relationship. Deep learning is experienced through people not machines, through personal experiences not impersonal technology.