The All-New Big Tech American School
A mother and former teacher sums up in 3 minutes what happened when schools became "Silicon Valley profit centers”
Introduction from Zach Rausch and Jon Haidt:
Parents across the world are rising up against the intrusion of the phone-based childhood into their children’s lives. Sometimes the action starts small, like a WhatsApp group of a few parents who want to delay smartphones or social media. But these small efforts can grow into something much larger, even a global movement. And sometimes, it’s just one parent showing up at a local school board meeting and sharing what she is seeing happen to her children and their peers.
That’s what we have today. Last week, we were sent a video of Emily Brownlee, a former high school teacher and mother of four, speaking before the Kansas State Department of Education. As a parent, teacher, and an Ambassador for ScreenStrong, Emily has deep firsthand insights into the impacts of digital technology on children’s health, well-being, and education.1
In just three minutes, she captured the educational damage that is happening in classrooms as digital technology takes over the school day.
Below, we include the 3-minute video of her remarks (the entire hearing is over seven hours!). After you listen, we then recommend reading the transcript of her words below.
Her words are more powerful than anything we could have written. We hope they are heard and shared widely, and that states, districts, and schools that are going phone-free, from bell-to-bell, feel reassured that they are taking the right step.
— Zach and Jon
The All-New Big Tech American School
By Emily Brownlee
Transcript of Emily Brownlee’s Remarks to the Kansas State Department of Education:
Good morning. Thank you for including all of us in your conversation today.
Over the years, many health professionals and advocates have spoken to this board about the harms a technology-dependent school has on children and teens. In the months to come, I hope we can partner together to discuss kids’ brains and screens. But today, I am here to paint a painful yet realistic picture of what our children experience each day as they enter the all-new Big Tech American school.
Kids, teens — before you enter the building, do you have your video camera in case you want to capture and post an embarrassing picture or video of a classmate? Your TikTok app? All your Instagram influencers? Your music, Netflix, YouTube, Discord? Pics that are circling the school? Is your geolocation on, and are your 1,000 Snapchat strangers in your pocket?
Oh, and don’t forget your online gaming: Fortnite, Minecraft, League of Legends. And make sure you still have access to millions of pornography videos.
We are so glad you’re prepared for school.
To enhance your learning experience, we’re going to give you a one-to-one device to use all day as you sit at this desk.
With this machine, you can: watch entertaining videos for the duration of class, alienate your teachers and peers, discover multiple ways around the firewall, cheat your way through high school, and learn math, science, and reading in a gamified way. Let Google create a digital profile of you, and allow the YouTube algorithm to lead you down a destructive path full of inappropriate content.
Lastly, when you use these school-approved apps, you consent for EdTech to steal and sell your information — because in their privacy agreements, most say:
“When you access or use our service, you are deemed to consent to the collection, use, retention, transfer, structuring, manipulation, storage, transmission, and/or disclosure of your information.”
Most importantly though, kids, you must sign a digital compliance agreement not to misuse the drug-like devices that are designed to be addictive that we allow at our school.
As a former high school teacher and a mother of four children, it’s alarming why I constantly have to prove with scientific research why this invasive technology is detrimental to our kids, when no one in the field of education can prove why it was introduced in the first place.
Why did we allow schools to become Silicon Valley profit centers?
Why did we replace human interaction with machines?
Why did we replace pencil and paper with keyboards?
Why did we replace physical books with digital ones?
Why did we force our children to stare at screens for seven hours a day when we had zero research on what it would do to their eyes, their brains, and their humanity?
Technology, as it's currently being used, is not the future of education — it’s the demise of education.
You have a golden opportunity, as Dennis recently mentioned, for Kansas to be a lighthouse for the nation. Save the current generation, and all those to follow, by eliminating the one-to-one tech programs in our schools and prohibiting distracting, addictive personal devices for the entire school day.
Then — and only then — will we be well on our way toward educational equity, transformative classrooms, and flourishing human beings.
Thank you.2
Learn more about ScreenStrong’s student curriculum and speaking engagements.
Note: You can join Emily every Wednesday at 12pm ET with the Distraction-Free Schools Policy Project.
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So thrilled that Emily’s testimony made it over here to After Babel! When someone shared it in our SFCxUS group recently, I literally said that those 3 minutes of testimony needed to be shared far and wide… and now that’s happening. So thank you, Jon & Zach, for making that possible. And thank you, Emily, for continuing to stand up for our kids! 👏
This is amazing. She sums it up perfectly: "it’s alarming why I constantly have to prove with scientific research why this invasive technology is detrimental to our kids, when no one in the field of education can prove why it was introduced in the first place."
Just forwarded this to our school committee and superintendent.