The Parent Revolt Against Too Much Screen Time

Welcome to Old School, New School, Next School with Dom Giordano, a podcast devoted to shedding light on issues pertaining to making America smart again. These include, among many topics, school choice and parental rights. This podcast is dedicated to reversing the deeply disturbing trend known as the dumbing down of America. Now, here's your host, Educator.

and noted talk media commentator, Dom Giordano.

Hi, everyone. This is Dom Giordano. Welcome to this week's edition of Old School, New School, Next School, where parental rights and stopping American kids from being dumb, which is a mighty task, or what we engage in each week in school choice is one of the biggest ways to do that.

We have with us this week a guy who is a curious guy to be leading a revolt, but he is. He is a neuroscientist. You're going to hear him talk with me about too many screens, the digital delusion in school. Where I am in the Philadelphia area, Lower Merion School District is nationally known, very affluent, very highly educated, very proficient in all the rest. Parents are in literal revolt with the school district.

that is not going to relent, that is saying screens are the way to go, meaning more and more usage of technology through the educational process. They talk about put down the pixels and pick up the pens, these parents. I'm talking about people making a quarter of a million a year, people with doctorate degrees and everything else. And they are taken by our guest book, Digital Delusion. So much so that the author of that book,

you'll hear with me in a moment, had to put out a special edition with 30 new data points in August. Who puts out an edition in August? His publisher demanded it because we're on the cusp of going back to school. This is one of the hot button issues. And these parents are saying too many phones, too much stuff. They're trying to do that on the home front. But why can't the schools go back? And you'll hear Dr. Harvat talk about this.

to full learning, reading, books, the teacher, not so much this reliance on AI, on screens, screens, and more screens. I'll also bring up with him, what about the arguments on the other side? If these kids are not doing this in pre-K, splitting atoms online, they're going to grow up not to know technology. He says, are you kidding me? All that is straight ahead. So this is an actual revolution.

going on. One other thing on today's podcast, after Dr. Horvath, Glenn Youngkin, remember him, two-time governor in Virginia who did a great job. He is now the proponent trying to get the big, beautiful bill, all that school choice money over the finish line, and he's taking on the 19 states that could block 20 million children from federal tax credit scholarships.

Glenn Youngkin tagging into the game in a big way. This is a guy I hope he runs for president in 2028. We'll talk about that coming up too. But right now, let's bring in here on Old School, New School, Next School, somebody who's been a guest before, but with a massive update. And as I said, what's it feel like to inadvertently be leading a revolution? Let's bring in Dr. Cooney Horvath here.

on old school, new school, next school. The digital delusion, how classroom technology harms our kids' learning and how to help them thrive again, a solution-based. As I understand it, Dr. Jarrett, you've added about 30 new pages of data points and the like because of how much this has taken off. And it seemed to surprise you. I'm not sure why it surprised you when I talked to you before. It's brilliant stuff.

American kids are getting dumber every day. And this is one of the more sophisticated ways of tackling a big problem. Thank you. That makes me so happy that other people are recognizing the work. And you're right, is I think because during the first release, there were a good set of questions that kind of people would raise. Hey, what about equity issues? Isn't tech good for lowering gaps? What about East Asian countries? They're really good with tech.

And so, yeah, I figured let's put out the new addition with this extra data that addresses all of those questions and shows, no, this isn't just a U.S. problem.

We see the same data wherever we go.

This is just a human issue, which makes it more important for us to start to tackle now.

Lover and Marion School District is one of the most touted over the last 50 years, and I do think they're pretty good.

But they are wedded.

They're right outside Philadelphia, as affluent as it gets.

They are wedded.

There's a fierce battle going on with highly educated and advanced parents, cardiologists, journalists, you know, all that stuff in which they won't give in only so much, even with younger kids. What is it that continues to fuel that when there's obvious your research and just gut instincts of really people that are engaged with this? This is not working, particularly with young kids.

Yeah, and I think it's the SpaceX problem, right? There's stories going around out there that tech feels good. It is the highlight story going on right now. AI must be powerful. Otherwise, why would people be spending trillions of dollars on it? And I think that drives a lot of the peoples who want to continue the tech and not actually start to really confront what's going on with it. So I think the narrative right now is beating the data. And so hopefully a book like this can help to push that narrative back.

And I think go take the next step further. I think there's a weird narrative going on that if you're not trained in tech, especially during the younger years, you're not going to be ready for the tech workforce going ahead. And believe it or not, the data, new data in the book shows no, it's the complete opposite was between 2013 and 2023. The percentage of kids who are digitally literate, minimally digitally literate has dropped about 11% across the US, even though the percentage of kids who are explicitly taught with digital technology,

tools at school has increased hundreds of percent in that same time. So it turns out that if you actually want to be digitally literate and ready for the workforce, training on the digital tools themselves is irrelevant. It actually harms your ability to think creatively. What you want to do is learn in an analog way and then bring that knowledge to the tool rather than trying to develop that knowledge through that tool. Does that kind of make sense? Yes, it does. I'm thinking about it even with sports. I have a thing. It reminds me of this.

with the overtraining of kids, stay on a single sport, start them when they're seven, versus play a lot of sports, and then when you arrive at the appropriate age, make a decision if you're going to specialize in a sport. What you just said there is exactly intuitive to me of how this should go about. You mentioned something, too, Doctor, with the new data points, etc. You have in the book another version of it out.

We look at these Asian countries, for example, and over a period of time, we see how regimented it could be. And I guess the technology blended with that. The argument is, the big argument with AI, we're going to be way behind China. I've had people I really respect on the show, even friendly with me, tell me, well, AI is going to cure cancer. Why don't you see this? Why are you in the Luddite and things of that nature? Are you a Luddite? Are you accused of that?

Oh gosh, I am a card carrying Luddite. I will stamp that on my head. Because you got to remember the Luddites weren't fighting against technology. They use technology in their craft. They were fighting for a way of life, a community that they thought was better and healthier for them and their families and development. And to be fair, they were correct. They lost the battle, but the industrial revolution basically destroyed everything they were trying to protect. It's the same thing here. I'm a Luddite. I don't care about tech. I'm not pushing against tech. I'm just fighting for

a form of learning and deep understanding and thinking about the world that I think is going to be more important going forward than this very shallow, narrow, answers-based society we're building right now with tech. So yes, I'm very much a Luddite because I believe in deep thinking and understanding. And I think what's funny is if you go to those East Asian countries, here's the joke that most people don't know. The least tech-using countries when it comes to education are Korea,

Singapore, Japan, China, Hong Kong. They they're like the most tech heavy countries when it comes to their economics. But they do not use digital technology in the schools or use they at least they didn't up until about 2024. They started to bring it in more. And they're already seeing drops because of that. But isn't that funny that these these countries that are super tech advanced have realized tech is for work. Tech is for employees.

Tech is for experts to make their lives easier so they can create. Tech is not for novices. Tech is not for learning. Tech is not how you become an expert. And they figured it out long before we did. We're talking with Dr. Harvath, who has been with us before the new release, new material in this book. Let's take a look at a couple of the things I think you mentioned that you really tried to because of some of the pushback on this. And that is low income. We hear, well, this is going to be the solution.

Philadelphia just gives out these Chromebooks. And everybody's going to be using that at home.

And I think what they found out, it's mostly game playing and things of that nature. Rather than other activities, it might be better. Talk about that. Doesn't it help people that are more impoverished to gain?

Yeah, so you're right. On average, 80 percent of all computer time is going to be gaming, multitasking, watching videos. It's not going to be learning.

But that ratio gets higher the lower your income. So it turns out higher income kids spend less time on computers fooling around, more time learning. It's kids from lower income houses who end up spending two to three hours more per day using these tools for non-academic purposes. So already it's a pure training issue. If I train three hours a day every single day more to use this tool one way, which is bad for learning, don't be surprised when I start to get worse and worse and worse.

at learning. And in fact, that's what we see is if you look at the gaps, the SES gaps in performance, between about 1990 and 2012, things started to really shrink. 2012 was about the best it ever was. Between 2012 and today, oh my goodness, the gap between the top 10% and the bottom 90% is larger than it had been since the 70s. I mean, the gaps have exploded. So tech, by and large, when did tech come in?

and heavy right around 2012. So you see, this tool isn't a way of diminishing differences. It's a way of amplifying and the shining a light on and making those differences worse. And I hate to get pedantic and boring, but I think there's a researcher named Neil Postman. He passed away a while ago, but he said the same thing about tech all along. He says, no tech in history has ever narrowed gaps because there will always be a difference between the haves and the have not.

So even if something as simple as an air conditioner will start to widen gaps simply because the rich can afford better versions of it and the poor either can't get it or get poor versions of it. So why would digital technology be any different? I know Postman interviewed him, etc. Yeah, I agree with you. Yeah, yeah. So he was brilliant. Yeah. Dr. Horvath. So what are the solutions to this? What are some of the metrics? What do you propose in the new edition of this book?

I think at a district-wide level, it's time to do a significant tech audit.

So basically, my recommendation is most school districts, draw a line in the sand.

Moratorium on tech. No new tech. Just make a guarantee no new tech for the next two years.

We already have enough tech. Then you can spend the next year doing an audit on the tech programs you already have.

What programs do you use? What subscriptions? What hardware are you using?

And from that, you can start to glean what's working and what's not. And what you'll see is probably half of all the tech expenditure you're doing right now, no one's using it. You will have subscriptions that no kid has touched in years. You'll have an LMS platform that no one is using, but you're still paying for it. So once you do that audit, that's when you can weed out what are we using, what are we not, scrap what we're not using and save that money. And then you can run a cost-benefit analysis on what's left. Are there programs that are genuinely beneficial? Compare it back to learning.

Are there programs that you're seeing no growth from? Are there programs that are harming? Compare that to the cost and then you can decide what is the better way moving forward to spend our money. Most of the time it's not going to be on tech. It's going to be on teacher training. It's going to be on physical manipulatives and textbooks for children. It's going to be on blue books and pencils again, which are far cheaper than iMacs and iPads. So believe it or not, I think you can save yourself a ton of money and see better results if you just give yourself a year or two to do an audit, see what's actually working, what's not.

and make decisions from there. Great stuff. Thank you for the addition and coming back on again. Where do we find the book and do you have a website overall? Thank you. Yeah. So the book, The Digital Delusion should be on Amazon and everything, just wherever you find books should be there. And if you want to just keep up with the latest research, I have a sub stack called The Digital Delusion where anytime new data comes out, new tests, new research, I'll just be compiling everything there. So if you want to kind of keep up with what's going on, that's a good place for it.

All right, everyone. That is Dr. Horovath. Tell your friends about it. Tell them about the book, Digital Delusion. And as we head back to school, do schools really need, isn't there enough, hard enough to keep kids off all these screens constantly? You know in your heart as a parent, as a grandparent, as a taxpayer, this is not good. The book, Digital Delusion. It lays out what he's found with the added resources that I just told you about.

This is a hot pot. Now we are getting near crunch time in that we are nearing the deciding period for the Big Beautiful Bill. Remember the very first show we did a year or so ago on Old School, New School, Next School? We talked about the Big Beautiful Bill through President Trump in which you will be able to donate money to nonprofits in your state or any of the 50 states. I think D.C. too.

that you choose and then take a one-to-one dollar, one-to-one monies off from your tax return, your federal tax return. It's a win-win. This is new money. It's not taken away from the public schools. Well, anyhow, we still have 19 states that have not decided yet or have said, we're not going to do it. Hell no. Well, tagging in, Glenn Youngkin is picking up the fight on school choice.

The former Virginia governor is behind empowering America's parents. He must listen to this show. A group planning to advertise directly to voters in the 19 states that haven't joined the new federal program for tax credit scholarships. Quote, if they blow this opportunity, Mr. Youngkin said on social media, they'll be leaving kids behind in their state while children in other states get the benefit.

So what is Josh Shapiro, leading presidential candidate, governor of Pennsylvania, going to do? What is J.B. Pritzker going to do in Illinois, also running for president? And umpteen others. Are they really going to block 20 million students, many of whom will be in their state? Are they really going to block this program? Some of them are. And we're going to have to take them on up and down the line.

to be primary for the rest of their life in political office.

It's that extreme.

But I have a lot of faith in Glenn Youngkin as a guy that will hit the right buttons

to help us and have money behind him to get this over the finish line.

When people hear this, if they hear it often enough, we are going to win for America's kids.

I don't care what the teachers unions do, what kind of lies, what other kinds of things they put out there.

They can come on old school, new school, next school, and we'll have them on for an hour, two hours, whatever it takes. The bottom line is we're in crunch time now. Across the country, some schools are already going back. In Philadelphia, they go back on August 24th. Are we really going to consign these kids to what I believe are fraudulent school districts like the Philadelphia public schools? Maybe where you are. They're substandard. They're horrible. They'll be horrible next year. It'll be horrible 100 years from now. Let these kids go.

If he has the resources with this organization, I think is going to get that message across. We hope to get him on the show. And again, this will happen in January where you'll be able to do this before the April tax returns. But now is the time we have to have a decision. What in the world are they waiting? I'll tell you what they're waiting for. They're waiting to calculate how angry we're going to be, how much we'll push back against them in voting against them because of this.

and the teachers unions, which fund them and threaten them every day. Josh Shapiro is one of the biggest cowards on this imaginable. This is a wonderful thing. Some of the money will go to our public schools. And again, all it is is choice, parents and kids, to help them over the hurdle of having enough resources in order to succeed. So be watching for this. Each week we'll update you as we count down together.

And I'm going to have in coming weeks my back to school special podcast about what to look for as you head to school or if you're a grandparent, whatever, in your school district in 2026. There are big issues, big guests out there, and we're going to bring them all to you. So if you want to send me an email, you want some advice, you have a question, something you'd like to hear on the podcast, just go to DOMSHOW, all one word, D-O-M-S-H-O-W,

at AOL.com. I'll be happy to respond. Until next week, tell other people about this. Tell them hope is on the way and tell them a revolution. I don't know if they'll be televised or not, but the revolution is underway. No screens for kids in kindergarten, first, second grade. They don't need it then. They'll pick it up later. You just heard Dr. Horvath lay that out. I'll see you next week. Dom Giordano, old school, new school, next school.

Old School, New School, Next School with Dom Giordano is a presentation of Giordano Productions LLC. Copyright 2026. All rights reserved.