BPS BPSF Forum on Technology Use by Children

all level. We've had on our board agenda now for about seven months in a row, and the result of that. One of the strategies has come out of that is we decided that we needed to try to help and we don't have all the answers. I don't think anybody really does. But what I like about the book The Anxious Generation, there's some research that comes that tells us,

you know, there's some challenge just causing some problems. And so we're going to host a forum for parents on Tuesday, January twenty eighth at the High School and the Fine Arts Cinea auditoriums. We from seven to eight. We'll start at seven, we'll be finished at eight. So we're going to be very cognizant of people's times and we're going to the point of it is just to share information with our parents. We want to help. And we have a panel. We put a panel together. I'm going to

moderate the discussion. On the panel, it is going to be Judge Russell Becklaw. We're gonna have a local pediatrician, doctor Helen Mumpus, Kristin Flick, who teaches at Central Middle School. She's a longtime elementary teacher and she's going to be there as a parent also as a teacher. But she has a senior, an eighth grader and a third grader. She's really involved with k life and it's pretty passionate about this topic. And then we have a couple of

a couple of students. We've got senior Emma Mackey, young lady, and then a young man, a junior, Jackson Miller. They serve on my advisory council. So that's our panel. There is the opportunity we've sent some there's information out on social media people can submit if they want to submit some questions or something they want to hear about. But we're going to give all those folks the ability to share some information and then hopefully get some have some

dialogue with our audience. This is this is kind which one to get started. We just want to help and so that's all. We want to work together. We can't do anything in isolation. You know, the school can't have some new policy that's going to fix everything. You know, we make we continue to make adjustments at the school level. But you know, we all just want to work together

and prepare our kids, uh for the next step. So it's gonna be Tuesday, January twenty eighth, from seven to eight, and we have tenderly plan on a couple more of these sessions next month at our middle schools, when at

Central and one over at Madison. And this meeting in particular is going to come after our we have an enrollment session for incoming freshmen, so a lot of parents are gonna be on campus right before that meeting, and so that's kind of that's why we picked on Tuesday, the twenty eighth, and so really looking forward to the meeting. We're going to help everyone will share and spread the word. It's not just for high school parents, as for anybody that wants to come, We want you to come out.

You know, if you don't have a kid in school, that's okay, just to come out and come out in the information. Yeah, it's really good. So blaringything to add to that, I.

and so he's really, you know, here to serve. And it's that's one of the things that bothers me the most about, you know, with the cell phones and videoing, and it's just been it's just part of it is that you know, people wanting to video things or catch somebody doing something or doing something inappropriate and posting it that they can try to generate more likes or attention. And that's just sad. I mean, that's wrong. We should

be better than that. And and but there's also some criminal things that can come If you have things that come across that you share that are inappropriate, you know, related to pornography, you can get yourself in a whole lot of trouble for the rest of your life. And so there's that's kind of the extreme of that, you know, but we do want to share. That's the reality. We

want people to be uh to be aware. And just as there are some recommendations that come out in the book, and really there's four of them that what the author, doctor Jonathan Height that he recommends. One is kids don't need a smartphone before they're in high school. The second one is they don't need to be on social media before they're sixteen. And the third is school at school, kids really don't need access to their cell phone. And then four is kids needed far more unsupervised play. They

need to play, and so that's really important. You know, we've been talking about that a lot too, even at the school level. How we can do more in really teaching our kids and our parents how to play without having to play on a screen.

kids for the world. And just like us, you know, there's now when you know that's happened since the pandemic. Now if there's a bad weather or there's the ability you know, telehealth, there's ability to if you can't get somewhere, you need to have a leand to learn how to have a virtual meeting and what's proper etiquette for that. You may be doing a job interview, first round of interviews are all handled remotely, and so that's the reality.

You know, we need to make sure that we are prepared and kids know how to interact in that world. But but I think as a bigger thing, we also need to help them learn, to help them grow. They need to learn how to live in the world without that. You can't live in the world without your phone and without your social media and learn how to interact with others. That's going to be very very interesting. And what's the next coming up on the twenty Y's Tuesday, January twenty eighth.

It's going to be from seven to eight o'clock at the high School and the Fine Arts Center auditorium. No registration is required, People just need to show up. We'll start at seven, we'll be finished at eight, and we at this point, we're planning on having a couple more sessions, one over at Central and one at Madison in February. We're gonna kind of build those around some of the couple of parent nights that they have scheduled, and we'll

invite everybody to come. I mean, that's a good opportunity. And know, if you maybe just have elementary age kids and you want to see the middle school that your kid's going to go to, that's just another opportunity to get into the middle school. But really encourage people to come to that. I know that you know, even hear about it at the legislative level. You know some states

or the process of banning phones at different levels. Yeah, you know, there's legislators, there's lots of different legislation that has been proposed, and who knows what's going to happen this time of year. They haven't gotten the session yet, but I know there's been give them a couple of

weeks exactly it'll happen. But you know, there's some legislators that really are passionate about this topic, and so there could be some legislation that comes across that we are for to do some things, but the reality is, I don't want to do something. I want us to control our own destiny. And the reality is we know this

is not good and we want to help. That's really all that we want to do is we want to help our parents, and so that's our goal of the meeting is so we can hopefully work together and work through this challenge, because it's not going anywhere.

everybody's pretty similar. I mean they have conversations a lot with their kids about how much they're using screens, what they're doing on screens. It's kind of a constant conversation. We just want to give them some resources to better and more effectively have those conversations. Yeah, just a lot of questions and about how best to enforce those limits

and what other parents are doing. Which again I know as a parent reading this book, that's really helped me the most is just even just this weekend, having conversations with my kids, I'm kind of in powered. No, I am doing the right thing. You know, you're not entitled to your phone all the time, So keeping that conversation going, I think is going to be really helpful.

I mean, that's just that's the I mean, you go out in the mountain in the world and you see that happening all the time. So I think just a reminder for all of us, just because I think we need to help, we all need to be more present and so uh because some of the things that come with and people are addicted to their phone. It talks about it in the book, you know, is that attention fragmentation.

People are so scattered. I think they're used to getting just videos and things that continue to come on in the spreen instead of just kind of pausing let their mind rest, you know. Read think people need to have more of those experiences. And also sleep deprivation. You know, people are so addicted to it's it's a huge thing, and especially for our teenagers. You know, they're not getting to sleep anyway as it is, and so this is

something else that can that can negatively impact them. And so anyway, so we just want to keep the conversation going and we just want to help. And so I think it's good for our parents to be with other parents and so that they can have some conversations because you know, many times our kids, you know, all that you hear from them as well, everybody else has this or everyone else is doing this, and so your parents

feel that naturally, you feel that pressure. You want to make sure you're providing the best for your kid, and you want to think you're being mean to your kid or whatever. And the reality is, you know, it's okay to say it's okay for us we can band together and say no, we're not going to do that.