To the editor: A careful look at screen time in school is essential. Of equal importance is examining screen use. It is oh so simple to create an outright ban on screen time for transitional kindergarteners, kindergartners and first-graders (“Screens would be banned until 2nd grade under draft LAUSD plan,” May 20). It is focused and purposeful screen use that must be examined and allowed as well.
I am a retired Los Angeles Unified School District high school biology, chemistry and computer science teacher, and a district instructional technology facilitator. I currently volunteer once a week in a local school STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) lab. In that lab, I have assisted the STEAM teacher as first-grade students create stop-motion animation videos on subjects they study, develop basic computer programming skills and control wireless robots using tablet-based computers.
Before outright bans on “screen time” are locked in, a careful carve-out should be seriously considered — a maximum of a half hour a week, for example. That would promote the ongoing supervised and directed efforts of schools devoted to providing hands-on STEAM education and growth mindsets to all students, as emphasized in today’s Common Core curriculum.
Bruce Gurnick, Porter Ranch