CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - The Cambridge School Committee and the the Cambridge Education Association discussed a proposal Tuesday to limit screen time for young students effective immediately, but both groups agreed to revisit the topic at the later date after they receive more information from the superintendent.
The proposal sought to suspend all screen time use for students in Pre-K to second grade for the remainder of the school year, or until the school district finished a review of screen time use that is currently underway and due in May. The Cambridge School Committee cited a recent study by the American Academy of Pediatrics related to the dangers of screen time for young children.
“When screens are used as a babysitter, substituting for something teachers should be doing, there’s strong evidence that use like that leads to behavioral problems that we’ll be dealing with for years, and we should have zero tolerance for that,” said Elizabeth Hudson, a member of the Cambridge School Committee.
“Good policy should be responsive to the best available evidence, and in February the American Academy of Pediatrics explicity names schools and calls for system level action,” said Caitlin Dube, a member of the Cambridge School Committee. “We have both the responsibility and the opportunity to respond.”
Hudson also said some of the young students are displaying a lack of basic skills.
“We have a four to one student to staff ratio, one of the lowest in the country, and nearly half of our students dont have basic literacy and math fluency. That’s the problem,” Hudson said.
The Cambridge Education Association argued while they understand the proposal and welcome the dialogue, stopping screen use at this point in the school year would be difficult without proper planning.
“We are 100 percent behind the spirit of the motion itself, and this idea that we should be talking about limits on screen time,” said Chris Montero, President of the Cambridge Education Association. “What we dont agree with is that this motion would be a hard stop essentially, and a disruption of classrooms in April at the end of the school year, which would be difficult for educators to do well without planning and thinking it through.”
The school district currently has an analysis of how screen time is used in classrooms underway, and during Tuesday’s meeting the majority of committee members agreed to wait until the superintendent’s presentation on that data.
“I think that we should absolutely wait for the audit, figure out exactly whats going on, and in the meantime talk to educators about what makes the most sense,” said Richard Harding, Jr., member of the Cambridge School Committee.
The Education Association said the results from the superintendent’s analysis are expected to be released on May 19.
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