Parenting iGen

Let's talk about screentime.

Dear Parents

As a forward-focused school, Hawken has embraced the power of technology on many levels, and most especially to facilitate deep learning. Our relationship with technology emphasizes creation and interactivity, as evidenced in our tablets, our touchscreens, our styli and our wireless interactive projectors. Our teachers integrate technology in thoughtful, natural, empowering, and age-appropriate ways. We are proud of the many ways that our students use technology to facilitate knowledge, skills and meaningful experiences.

We also care about our students’ well-being, and we recognize that it is not always easy for students and parents to determine healthy boundaries with screens outside of school. Most of us parents are the first generation to try to parent in the era of smartphones and ubiquitous connectivity, and, so, many of us are figuring it out as we go. If we had a personal technology device as children or teens, it may have been a Sony Walkman or a handheld video game. We could hardly have imagined that one day our children would not just have one device perpetually connected to a constant stream of information, but in most cases several different devices (laptops, tablets, phones, smart TV’s, game systems, etc.) each with a different purpose.

Research is emerging and evolving in the area of screen-related habits as they impact the health and well-being of our children. As custodians of your children, we take in and think about this research, even if it is most often directed at screen habits outside of school or the school day. We encourage you to do the same. While we recognize that every family will have unique relationships to technology and different philosophies guiding their interaction with it, we realize there are some general but clear principles and recommendations that we can endorse. And, most importantly, we believe that if you spend time as parents and families at least considering your options and choices, you will be in the best position to raise your children with a healthy relationship to technology—one that maximizes its benefits and limits its detriments.
To this end, we have compiled some resources for you. On this site, you will find:

• A list of general recommendations that are based on dozens of research studies and expert opinions.
• A sample set of tech rules or guidelines that can be adapted to your liking and hung on your fridge.
• Annotated links to many of the online articles, videos, books and interviews that have shaped our thinking about healthy technology habits.

Please note that there are many, many research studies validating the use of technology as a learning tool. There are even compelling arguments supporting the value of common video games in promoting deep and complex thinking. Our purpose here is not to justify our implementations of technology in the classroom or our overall commitment to using it as a powerful learning tool. Instead, our purpose is to provide parents and families resources to help shape a balanced relationship with technology outside of the classroom—at home, and in the times between home and school. 

Thanks for your partnership!

Chief Technology Officer