Working with children both fourth graders and preschool (4 and 5 year olds) I notice more and more how things today are truly different then they were 20 years ago. When I was growing up I did have a computer and I did have television, however, my time with that technology was limited. There were times that I was forced to find something else to do...play with toys, read a book, play a game, make up a game to play. Growing up my brother and my cousins and I turned my grandparents house into everything in the world. The house would be a hotel, a restaurant, a barn with horses, a park, a school. My grandma had an office and that office was every office imaginable hotel office, park office, school office, doctor office. We used our creativity to create things to play. I remember the couch being a fishing boat, making rods out of sticks from the yard and string and a paperclip as a hook, and then punching holes with a hole punch into paper fish and then one person was the "fish" in the "water" and the other(s) would be fishing from the "boat". We also used to put on plays and newscasts for my grandparents and we'd get them to videotape us. I don't see this as much today from the children that I've worked with in the classroom. Plus, many children even the small ones are aware of things that I wasn't aware of at their age because of the new technologies. Now don't get me wrong I do see the benefit in technology when it's used appropriately. In fact I am a strong advocate in a 1:1 ratio for computers in the classroom especially from Kindergarten forward. I don't think kids should be on all the time, but there is definitely a benefit to putting them in front of something appropriate to let them learn on their own as opposed to listening to a lecture. However, kids still need to be encouraged to be kids and to be creative and to go outside and out there in the world from time to time. Just my two cents.
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