Lead or be led in schools

Stacy Gittleman's recent piece (June/Downtown) on the digital curriculum in Oakland County schools named something many of us have been watching with growing alarm, and something we are no longer content to simply watch.

I am a VP of Product at a technology company. I build the platforms, design the engagement systems, and understand the mechanics of how digital products capture and hold attention. I say this to make one thing clear: my concern about how technology is being used with our children is not a fear of the unfamiliar. It's the opposite. It's what you see when you know how these systems work.

The teachers quoted in this article — Mark, Debbi Daniels, Joe Leibson — are describing something real. When a child is on a device, the device is not neutral. It is actively competing for their attention. That is not a bug; it is the design. And when we place that competition inside a classroom and ask a single teacher to outmaneuver it for 25 plus students simultaneously, we are setting everyone up to fail.

What gives me hope is that parents in Birmingham aren't waiting anymore. MAMA (Mothers Against Media Addiction), the chapter I lead locally, has been pushing Birmingham Public Schools on several fronts: 

• A bell-to-bell smartphone ban, because Michigan's new classroom-only law is a floor, not a ceiling;

• reviewing our tech policy and use of tech in classrooms, from the hours student spend on devices to YouTube's open access on school Chromebooks; and 

• reconsidering iReady's daily curriculum delivery, which relies on the same engagement mechanics that make commercial platforms so hard to put down. 

These are not abstract concerns. Like the article states, Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to under perform its predecessors on virtually every cognitive benchmark, and researchers tie that directly to how digital technology is being used in schools. Birmingham can choose to lead on this, or it can wait to be led.

When I started the local MAMA chapter, I was struck by how much was already in motion. Wait Till 8th has gained real momentum in Oakland County. PAACT — Parents Allied for Accountability, Conduct, and Transparency — launched just weeks ago and already has families from all 13 Birmingham Public Schools showing up to board meetings and asking hard questions. ScreenWise Ann Arbor, MPASS, and REACT Tech are organizing across the region. And nearly 500 Birmingham families have signed petitions supporting a bell-to-bell smartphone ban and a review of iReady. This is not a fringe movement. What I've learned is many parents are on board, they just are not aware of what is happening in the classroom and on these devices. 

Birmingham has always prided itself on its schools. The private school heads I've spoken with describe their competitive advantage in one word: culture. The culture of a classroom where students are present, making eye contact, doing the hard cognitive work of being bored and working through it. That culture doesn't happen by accident. It is protected by policy, by leadership, by a community willing to say that some things matter more than convenience.

Thank you for your article.

Sahar Omrani

Birmingham