DIGITAL SCHOOL OR REGULAR SCHOOL – during EARLY/PRIMARY grade years?

What’s right?  (is a question we often get, or comes up in conversations with parents – as they hear about big brand schools schooling fully on I Pad and SCREEN based digital learning, grade 1 onwards).

 Is digital schooling the way forward?

the short answer is NO. a big No, in the early & primary years.  Although in later years a larger proportion of schooling can potentially be done online.

Lets try to understand.

Yes the world is going digital & web 3.0 metaverse and many other digital technologies are under roll out …. even coding classes are being offered even for 5 year olds, by some players? But is the full on- screens learning format a proven, effective & safe, for our children?  Only time will tell – given that it’s been only recently introduced in schools.

According to our child development experts at the Sixth element school – its inappropriate to expose children to extended period of screen time.   Extended exposure to computer screens is just too dangerous for the eyes and young minds, upto the age of 14 years.

  • so very dangerous – that countries like France & Germany have banned screen-based learning upto the age of 14, by law in all their schools.  

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/09/children-under-the-age-of-15-in-france-are-now-banned-from-using-their-phones-in-school

During the early years – the child is developing & learning rapidly. Actually the pace is exponential, taking inputs from all the 5 senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch – and developing gross motor, fine motor, cognitive, social skills and discovering the world and how it works.

Which is why the regular schooling is the right way to learn, upto primary grades. After all how will a child really learn without physically seeing, touching, feeling, holding, making, doing, writing with his/her hands and how will the child develop social, collaboration & cognitive skills – without team work/group activities, etc in a physical setting.  Some digital teaching aids – used by the teacher-occasionally (minimal, but limited to upto 15% of all classroom time) – and NOT all the time, is however ok.

  • Forming letters, sentences, doing art work, taking notes by hand is important activity useful for students of all ages because it develops the brain & many hand & finger muscles, improves attention, comprehension, memory, brain development and results.  Just a simple activity of writing on paper – enhances recall significantly ( even if one does not refer again, to the note on paper).
  • brain develops & engages differently when we write something by hand, as opposed to typing/drawing it on a keyboard/screen. Studies show that physical writing improves creativity; and students retain learning better when working with new ideas through handwriting or sketching on paper, instead of doing on screens.
  • writing by hand significantly improves brain activity in recall tasks over taking notes on a tablet or smartphone. Additionally, those who write by hand on paper are 25% quicker at note-taking activities than those who use digital options
  • writing by hand is a clear winner when it comes to brain stimulation & development. We make use of the brain much more in writing than typing on a screen, just like comparing watching television and reading a book. Because there is an action/movement when writing, so our brain’s motor cortex is largely stimulated.
  • Apart from this being a well-established traditional learning practice – scientific Study indicates writing on paper better for brain development than writing with stylus on a screen  https://newatlas.com/science/writing-paper-better-memory-stylus-tablet-brain-activity/
  • The correct way is that to start with students are given chalks and then progress to pencils. They do this so that the child develops a good handwriting – so very important .  (Steve jobs calligraphy lessons led to his elegant design of the first APPLE MAC keyboard). Once, the child develops a good handwriting & control of hands to draw/express  by pencil, he/she can be given the pen to move on in middle school. Once they have formed their core handwriting capabilities on paper, screen based writing is best done only in high school or somewhere in middle school only  as a supplementary too ideally– based on curriculum/education model

And in this context,  lets keep in mind,  THE EARLY & INITIAL YEARS, ARE MOST IMPORTANT!

 Contrary to common perception, its actually during early years that the foundation of child’s mind, body & emotional capabilities is cast, which becomes the base on which all further development & success in later years’ – i.e. in middle & high school, college & work significantly manifests. Which is why nursery & early primary years schooling are most important.

  • Hence the importance of your child enrolling a well-run & structured, engaging early/primary years schooling program, in which play, activities, music, sounds, visual perceptions, colours, coordination, conversations, storytelling & dialogue, outdoor play, projects etc, etc – are designed to leverage the inherent  capabilities of a young fast growing human – developing his or her language, fine & gross motor skills, cognitive capabilities – leveraging the inherent  superior learning & development capabilities of a  0-6 year old child.

HENCE VERY IMPORTANT TO CHOOSE YOUR CHILD’s FIRST/PRIMARY SCHOOL WISELY!

  • Our green, ecofriendly, ventilated, bright vibrant school – with a warm, friendly, caring, nurturing ethos – draws its core early years child development principles from international child development experts – Piaget, Vygostky, Bruner and Eric Erikson
  • In the Primary grades – our curriculum is further enhanced with best practices & learning modules drawn from Cambridge, CBSE & NCERT – benchmarked with the world renowned FINNISH model of education.

we at the Sixth Element school have been doing this since 2004 (been over 18 years) and are fortunate that we have a great team of awesome teachers & great management & support staff – and run two centres of school excellence @ Gurgaon – one at Southcity1 and the other at Tata Primanti, Sector 72!

If you are looking for the best nursery school in South City1 Gurgaon, then you have the best option for your child in our school. Admissions are open now, visit our school or call us today.

More questions: please do reach us – we’ll be glad to chat /help!! Thanks for your attention.

sincerely, Team TSE.

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