Spencer, 9, came home and told me he needed the computer to do his homework. I was busy at the time, so I told him I would get to it later.
The reason our son could not simply turn on the computer was because it was missing something rather important, namely, the power cord.
Why would the power cord go missing, pray tell? It might have had to do with the fact a week previous, he spent the weekend playing on his iPad or computer, then didn’t tell me until 7:30 a.m. on the following Monday he had homework in several subjects. This, despite me asking several times if he had any homework.
I’m in a real quandary when it comes to the kids and electronics. Some people say they should have only a limited amount of screen time, and maybe they’re right. But that’s pretty hard to enforce in this day and age.
What I have found is the most effective disciplinary action is loss of electronics. For major offences, this can be weeks. Other times, it’s a matter of seizing the daughter’s electronics until the dishes are washed. Then, amazingly enough, they get washed relatively quickly, if not effectively. (We’re still working on that. More practice, I say!)
Our kids are spoiled, in that each has a hand-me-down iPhone, which does not actually have cellular access, and whose batteries require constant charging; an iPad mini purchased two years ago, and really old iPods hardly functional due to battery issues. They also each have access to a computer, one of which is 2007 vintage, the other 2009.
I do not think a 12-year-old needs a cell plan, nor can I afford one for her. I already give SaskTel more money each month than we put away for the kids’ educations.
I was struck by Spencer’s Grade 4 homework assignment. It was sent to him on his school Gmail account. He had several items he had to do, including working with interactive animations showing how buffalo hides were tanned. (I squirmed when it mentioned using brains in the tanning process.)
In all practicality, he could not do this homework without access to a computer or tablet. When my parental controls time limit kicked in and, for some reason, Microsoft would not recognize I had allowed him more time, he stomped off, saying I was causing him to get a lower mark! He was, in part, correct.
It made me think back a decade and more ago, when, as an air cadet instructor, our office staff had to be very cognizant of the economic circumstances of the cadets. We had children from some of the highest to some of the lowest economic strata within the unit. Back then sending out a simple squadron-wide email to all the parents might not fly, because not everyone had Internet at home, or even computers, never mind smart phones.
So I wonder now, has that changed? Can schools today expect every kid to have access to high speed Internet at home, a computer or tablet to do their homework on? Do even the poorest in our society now have high-speed connections?
It is, of course, useful for children to learn these things at a young age. Our kids were never taught to type, they just do so. (I noticed they could use some improvement, and got them doing a typing tutorial. Katrina breezed through 40 lessons in two days.)
I personally didn’t get a computer until the last months of Grade 12, just before going off to engineering school where a computer was all but required. That computer cost $2,500 in 1993, an enormous sum whose financial impact on my parents I only now fully appreciate. It cost nearly as much as my tuition.
That computer could do little more than run a word processor, spreadsheet and a few crude games. It didn’t even have sound capabilities at first. The hand-me-down iPhones our kids use, on the other hand, could have easily replaced all the computers NASA had to put a man on the moon.
Now that homework is coming home via email, how am I supposed to use electronics depravation as a disciplinary tool? Nothing else works nearly as well. Spencer hardly cares about his toys, or Lego. All he wants is that screen.
It was once said, “a chicken in every pot.” Now it’s a computer for every kid.
— Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected].
