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Move over summer! A new school year has begun! There is a shift in the air, and a shift in the tempo as families re-adapt to early morning schedules, homework demands, and bedtime restrictions. While the tempo has changed, it appears that the methods of learning may well need to be readdressed. In a recent national survey, 2 out of 3 high-school students claim they are bored in class every single day. About 30% attributes this boredom due to lack of interaction with teachers, but 75% claim the materials taught are not interesting. According to the survey, it is conceivable that 1 out of three students are sitting in class not interacting with a teacher on a daily basis, and perhaps never at all.

Not only do parents face organizational challenges with the start of the school year, teachers are facing the daunting reality that many students are bored with text. One elementary school teacher from Boston when asked her opinion said, “Kids are not learning effectively with today’s methods. I believe part of it has to do with their need for electronic stimulation. The textbooks are boring, because our kids are used to being entertained. Think about it: When is the last time you walked anywhere and didn’t see kids of all ages text messaging, walking around with earphones clued to their heads and ipods in their hands. Teachers do not stand a chance against the deluge of electronic stimulation that consumes about 90% of our youth today.” How do teachers and administration deal effectively with this increasing problem? It appears consuming media has far surpassed reading storybooks, or playing dress-up as the average American child’s favorite pastime. Overall, children between the ages of 2 and 18 spend an average of almost five-and-a-half hours a day at home watching television, playing computer games, surfing the web, listening to their Ipods, and text messaging on their cell phones. A kid’s idea of multitasking today, is juggling a text message, a phone call, while keeping one of their earpieces glued to their Ipod attached to their ear.

How does all this media use affect children’s cognitive, emotional and social development? Researchers and teachers alike are searching for answers and taking the question much more seriously. Dr. Sandra Calvert, a professor of psychology at Georgetown University, and the principle investigator and director of the Children’s Media Center said, “American children now grow up with electronic media at their fingertips. Yet there are important gaps in our knowledge about the role of interactive media in children’s healthy development. For years psychologists and educators have been watching these issues escalate, but so far, they have not been able to come up with any concrete answers in dealing with the digital giant.

Between the lurking apathy in many of our high school students, and the inability teachers and publishers have had to stimulate a drive to learn, it may be time to take another tack, before the dropout rate continues to escalate to alarming proportions.

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