La Cucaracha by Lalo Alcaraz for August 27, 2024

“Withdrawal” is the word that comes to mind…

Kids have whined about school since fish invaded dry land…..

Later, the kids will be texting one another about all the whining they had to do!

( HA HA ! )

..can any one of us over 30 imagine what it would be like to be in a classroom nowadays, with every kid jonesing to look at their phones every couple of minutes?

I remember in 1964 kids who had an earphone to their transistor radio in class.

Next they’ll be taking away tablets from cats. What is this world coming to? :)

Mostly from the parents; kids will echo what they hear at home

To understand why it’s a really, really good idea for schools to ban smartphones all day long, not just during classes, read the sobering data about the correlations between smartphone use and teen depression, self-harm, withdrawal, narcissism, and suicide enumerated in The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. It’s a 2024 book by Jonathan Haidt which argues that the rise of smartphones and overprotective parenting have led to a “rewiring” of childhood. And not in a good way.

On my list, but I’m #220 on the library’s request list.