The Pen(cil) is Mightier Than the Laptop
The Case for the Analog Classroom
Note from Emily: I was invited to deliver a keynote at Tikvah’s Marom conference in Miami on March 15, 2026, a national summit for K-12 educational leaders. The following is an essay based on my talk.
Good afternoon.
My name is Emily Cherkin. I am a parent, writer, speaker, and teacher. My words today are adapted from testimony I delivered recently before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; to members of Parliament in the UK; and before several state legislatures.
Before I leap into this important topic, I would like to thank you for being educators and school leaders.
For my Senate testimony, I was asked to “summarize the impact of technology on childhood in five minutes.”
I can show you this in one image: A group of kindergarten students on the playground before school starts. They aren’t running around and playing with their friends; they are sitting on the pavement, hunched over their school-issued iPads.
So I am here today with an urgent warning: Technology is fundamentally changing childhood, and in the process, undermining parents, ruining education, and threatening the very health of our democracy.
Childhood Today
Let’s talk about where childhood sits today–
Children 8- to 18-years-old average 7.5 hours a day on screens– outside of school hours.
Occupational therapists tell me they now have to teach young children how to turn the pages of a book.
Preschool teachers report that toddlers don’t like getting their hands dirty.
4-year-olds with their own smartphones are showing clinical signs of addiction to screens– eyes glazed over when toys and physical books are present; eyes light up when a screen is produced.
Nearly 90% of schools provide children with internet-connected devices for “learning.”
Meanwhile, elementary school children are literally falling out of their chairs in classrooms because they lack the core strength to sit for long periods of time.
26% of teens use ChatGPT to do their schoolwork– which they access on the laptops the school gives them.
I know one teen so addicted to his phone he sealed it in a ziploc bag and brought it into the shower with him.
One child viewed more than 13,000 YouTube videos in less than three months– at school on his school-issued laptop.
A teacher told me that while assessing young children for kindergarten readiness, she wanted to see what letters and numerals they could name. When they got to “11,” however, the children said: “Pause.” (As in an “11” looks like what they recognize as a pause button on a screen.)
Today, in March of 2026, it is much more commonly accepted that smartphones and social media use harm children, and after nearly a decade of advocacy work, lawmakers and governments around the world are enacting changes. This is excellent and I wholeheartedly support these efforts…
But further protection is needed of children during the school day. Passing phone-free school policies and delaying social media access is needed. But in order to further protect children’s cognitive, mental, and emotional health we must do more than ban phones from classrooms or remove screens from childhood: We must get rid of EdTech too.
School Today
School today looks very different not just from when we were students, but even just five or six years ago. While things can vary wildly from school to school and even class to class, today, it is not uncommon to see
Children hunched over individual laptops or iPads
Wearing headphones in a silent classroom
Teachers monitoring students on a screen of screens
Chalkboards have become digitized whiteboards
Schools use hundreds, if not thousands, of unique EdTech products and apps per school
Curriculum and grades are online
Kids rush through paper-based classwork to get iPad time
eBooks and note-taking apps replace physical texts
Homework is posted in online learning management systems
Learning apps embed persuasive design techniques that emphasizes rewards and engagement over learning
And human teachers are being replaced by AI “tutors,” even as harms due to children’s use of AI products fill the headlines.
I am not anti-technology. But when it comes to EdTech, we have made four mistakes.
The 4 Mistakes We’ve Made About EdTech
Over-reliance on 1:1 and internet-connected tools in the name of “learning” or “efficacy”
Undervaluing the hands-on, relationship-based role of teachers in the learning experience
Failing to protect children from data and privacy breaches that are embedded within the business model of EdTech
Trusting that EdTech companies have our children and teachers’ best interests at heart.
It’s okay if this is new information to you. It’s okay that you may have made some of these mistakes yourselves. The onslaught of digitized EdTech products into schools happened quickly and relatively quietly while other crises dominate the headlines. That distraction has served EdTech companies well. Yet many of the companies who build these EdTech products– some of the most powerful companies whose names you’ve never heard of– are as powerful and wealthy as the companies whose names you do know.
In reality, putting “ed” before the word “tech” doesn’t mean it is effective, safe, legal, or better than a human teacher.
Because if you remember nothing else I say today, please let it be this: at its very core, the business model of EdTech is no different from the business model of Big Tech and both are fundamentally at odds with healthy child development. Big Tech has already co-opted the social lives of our children; we cannot let them co-opt their education too.
At the end of the day, EdTech is just Big Tech in a sweater vest.
It is more urgent than ever that lawmakers seek to hold these very powerful companies accountable. But it is equally important that school leaders also act swiftly and decisively:
Toppling the Tower
I know things have changed a lot in education. I understand that the pandemic temporarily shifted the way we did things, and then, when we returned full time to our classrooms, the apps and devices that we spent a lot of money on during lockdown…remained.
And so, like a Jenga tower, we stacked more infrastructure around the tech we were already using, building, intentionally or not, an EdTech ecosystem from which we have not been able to extricate ourselves easily– testing is on devices, homework is in a learning management system, readings are in digital textbooks, communications are via email, grading is in a portal, registration is done online, and so on.
Because of this– if we pull out one of the pieces, the rest of the system will collapse.
But I am here to say: perhaps it is time to do just that, and from the ashes, rebuild our schools to be tech-intentional– where we prioritize human instructors, handwritten assignments, physical texts, and opportunities for struggle and discomfort to occur because it is in those moments learning happens and critical thinking skills are built.
I know this is a bold ask– but school leaders who choose to do this now will be able to shape the rebuilding process in alignment with child development, teacher autonomy, and your school’s value systems.
You’ve probably heard that children need these products to be successful, “digital citizens” of the future, that “we live in a digital world” and “this is the landscape now.”
Here is the problem: these claims stem from industry-funded marketing that benefits technology companies, not children or teachers. Those who make these claims profit off our fear and anxiety about our students’ futures and then sell us faulty products that do not work and impede their future success.
In truth: The best preparation for a digital future is an analog childhood.
My colleague Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath’s recent testimony before the United States Senate revealed a stark truth that can no longer be ignored: Children today are less cognitively capable than we were at their age.
Additionally, his research has found that in spite of all the technology we threw at them over the past 13 years, students today are less digitally literate. The blue line shows that as we adopted digital technology broadly in schools, test scores began to plummet. This isn’t just true in the United States– globally, the same thing has occurred. But the solution isn’t more tech. As Jared says, if we attempt to redesign education to fit the tool– that is “not progress, that’s surrender.”
These truths pose a challenge for an industry whose entire existence depends on children and schools using their product. But these products have unfortunately fueled a wholesale re-structuring of childhood around screens– both at home and in school– that has been catastrophic for children, families, and educators.
Why? Because the EdTech industry has borrowed strategies directly from the Big Tobacco and Big Tech playbook to hoodwink us into thinking that without these products, our children will not learn; our teachers will not feel supported; education will be inequitable; our children will not be prepared for the future.
These are lies.
I firmly reject the notion that it’s too late to change things because technology is here to stay. Of course technology is here to stay, but it is absolutely not a foregone conclusion that EdTech companies should be allowed to run rampant through our classrooms without consequences.
Four Crises We Currently Face
We currently face four crises that warrant our immediate attention. There is an urgency to do something, and quickly. Our children’s very childhoods hang in the balance. Doing nothing is not an option.
First, a mental health crisis. Screen use before two years of age is linked to accelerated anxiety by age 13. Today, one in three teen girls has seriously contemplated suicide. The youth mental health crisis is so dire it elicited a warning from the surgeon general.
Second, we face a learning crisis. As we rolled out EdTech, reading and math scores plummeted. Brand new research by my colleague Dr. Jean Twenge shows that in schools where students spend a lot of time using devices– personal or school-issued– for entertainment during the school day, test scores plummet.
Third, we face a crisis in creativity. A 15-year-old in Kentucky told me the elementary school students she teaches in a drama class, when she said to them, “Let’s pretend we’re flying!” they looked at her and asked, ‘How?’“
If children can’t pretend to fly, they cannot imagine, and if they cannot imagine, they cannot innovate.
Creativity means “having an original thought.” Technology access in childhood does not enhance creativity; it kills it. Remember, today’s tech titans had analog, play-based childhoods and they send their own children to nature-based, low-tech schools.
Finally, the enmeshment of technology in childhood is creating a crisis for our democracy. Jefferson himself said, “An informed citizenry is at the heart of a dynamic democracy.”
When children spend hours being fed algorithmically-driven rage-bait content designed to increase engagement on internet-connected devices given to them by the adults who are supposed to protect them, they lose the ability to form their own opinions, detect bias, and think critically.
That should frighten us all.
It is important to state that this is not a kid problem. It is an adult problem that is impacting children and it is our job as adults to do something, NOW.
So how do we do that? By asking 4 questions.
The Four Questions We Must Ask
I propose that before we hand children technology-based products in the name of education, we must ask:
Is this effective?
Is this safe?
Is this legal?
Is this better than a human?
Currently, unfortunately, the answer to all four of these questions is No.
And that’s unacceptable.
We have the research showing these products are not effective learning tools;
We have the evidence that children are viewing advertisements, accessing pornography, and watching YouTube during school hours;
We can read about the lawsuits alleging theft and sale of student personal data and learn about the data breaches that have already occurred;
and we also know that there will be very few circumstances where a technology product will ever be better for a child than a human teacher, because technology cannot empathize, humans can, and it is in the context of a caring, empathy-based relationship that real learning and growth occur.
But EdTech is Not “Tech Ed”
I stated earlier that I am not anti-technology. I am, in fact, tech-intentional.
But I want to clarify that EdTech is not “Tech Ed.”
The examples I’ve shared today are EdTech. More than ever, children need to receive technology education from a skilled human teacher.
Tech Ed, however, is very different from Educational Technology. TechEd is learning about technology; EdTech is attempting to learn on technology. They are not the same.
We do not teach children about drugs and alcohol by giving them drugs and alcohol; the same is true here– we can teach children about technology without giving them internet-connected devices. We must do this.
Four Acts of Change
So where does that leave us as school leaders? With the power to implement 4 Acts of Change when you return to your schools.
Hit Pause (not 11) on investing in any new EdTech tools. The most advanced technologies in the classroom should be pencils, paper, and people.
Perform an Audit of existing platforms to decide if they meet the criteria of effective, safe, legal, and better than a human.
Implement an immediate Moratorium on any GenAI products, especially those accessible to students, but also those that teachers may use that might impact students (like for assessments, “personalized learning” apps.)
Start this conversation with your community. Ask: What would it take for our school to become tech-intentional?
As school leaders, modeling that we have made a mistake, learned new information, and decided to make different choices is in and of itself an incredibly powerful lesson for our children.
We’re Winning
I have heard many times that this fight feels like David versus Goliath. It is true– we aren’t as well-funded or platformed as the mighty technology behemoths we battle. On a personal note, I am the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against one of the largest EdTech companies. At times, I feel very much like small David with my slingshot.
Disentangling ourselves from the enmeshment of EdTech will be messy and difficult. But that doesn’t mean we give up or walk away without trying.
We have a choice– none of this is a foregone conclusion.
And remember, in the story of David and Goliath, it is the end of the story that is the part of this analogy that matters:
David won.
Thank you.