Your Kid’s Not the Only One Struggling With Screens

The teachers walking into classrooms right now grew up glued to screens too, and that's reshaping how teacher prep programs handle screen addiction, shortened attention spans, and phone distraction in the classroom. Melanie Lay and Amy Hickman train future educators at Texas Tech University, and both also evaluate teacher preparation programs nationwide, Melanie through US PREP and Amy as a TPI-US inspector. In this conversation, they break down what's actually being taught to future teachers about managing devices, social media, and mental health in the classroom, and what's still a gap. You'll hear why even 20-something teacher candidates get pulled off task by smartwatch notifications, why Texas now requires phones to stay in lockers during the school day, and what happens when a one-to-one device rollout has unintended consequences for kids' attention and eyesight.

Key insight: after a decade collecting data from 7.5 million families, Bark says pediatricians are now reaching out directly for guidance on what to tell parents about kids' screen time.

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