{"id":249068,"date":"2026-05-30T23:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T23:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/249068\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T23:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T23:25:09","slug":"kids-without-screens-one-nyc-school-district-works-to-break-the-habit-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/249068\/","title":{"rendered":"Kids without screens? One NYC school district works to break the habit"},"content":{"rendered":"

As backlash to education technology continues to grow across New York City<\/a>, dozens of Upper Manhattan public schools came together over the past week with a fresh twist on an old idea:<\/p>\n

No screens in the classroom.<\/p>\n

Thirty-eight public schools across District 6, which covers Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights and Inwood, participated in a parent-led initiative dubbed \u201cScreen Break.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

As part of the experiment, which had the backing of the district superintendent, teachers were encouraged to limit screen use in the classroom and to set aside unstructured time for movement and play. Outside of school, families took part in free programming across the district \u2014 from a neighborhood clean-up and book exchange, to improv and arts and crafts.<\/p>\n

The response was positive, even from many students<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s good to not use computers once in a while,\u201d said Elani, a third grader at P.S. 153 Adam Clayton Powell, who attended a sketch class after school on Thursday at The Hispanic Society Museum & Library with her schoolmate Dulce.<\/p>\n

Dulce, who\u2019s in the same grade as Elani, agreed. She said she sometimes uses a children\u2019s dictionary to spell words instead of Google when she doesn\u2019t want to use a laptop \u2014 or her dad won\u2019t tell her the answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I watch something for a while, my head starts to get weird. It makes me feel sleepy,\u201d Dulce said. \u201cIf the whole world gets consumed with technology, like computers\u2026 our brains might become fried.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot like fried chicken,\u201d she quickly clarified.<\/p>\n

Too much tech?<\/p>\n

The screen-free week was the latest example of local parents organizing this school year against the growing role of technology in the public schools<\/a>. A parent coalition that opposes artificial intelligence, unaffiliated with the Upper Manhattan movement, has protested at City Hall and testified at school boarding meetings for a two-year moratorium.<\/p>\n

It also comes toward the end of the first school year of New York\u2019s bell-to-bell cellphone ban<\/a>, suggesting the concerns about screens in the classroom may go beyond just phones.<\/p>\n

The idea for a screen break was first proposed by Olympia Kazi, a parent of two students at P.S.\/I.S. 187 Hudson Cliffs, who said she\u2019s raising her children to have a \u201cbalanced relationship\u201d with screens. She lets the kids, ages 8 and 10, watch television, but almost exclusively on weekends. She\u2019ll make an exception for sick days or school breaks.<\/p>\n

But Kazi is increasingly concerned about the rapid growth of screens in education. She said her daughter in third grade has a school-issued Google Chromebook<\/a> with Gemini AI installed. A teacher told her son in fifth grade that for a drawing assignment, he could use Canva AI, an image generator, instead of relying on his own creativity.<\/p>\n

The unease goes beyond AI. Her son also had an assignment to play Prodigy Math, a video game where kids answer adaptive math questions to win battles and complete quests. \u201cI saw what he was doing, and then I realized that he could buy one of the accounts,\u201d Kazi said. \u201cI was like, this is in the public school?\u201d<\/p>\n

For Kazi, the final straw was a news article in March about today\u2019s children falling behind their parents\u2019 generation. She wrote a letter to her superintendent, Renzo Martinez, and Chancellor Kamar Samuels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the letter, I was saying, here I am today reading yet one more article about this. And you know what? I don\u2019t want to lament. I want to do something about it. Can we do something?\u201d Kazi said Martinez responded within the hour.<\/p>\n

Breaking the addiction<\/p>\n

The district-wide screen break was scheduled for after computer-based state tests<\/a> and a short school week, when students already had off for Memorial Day and Eid al-Adha. On school days, some principals reorganized class schedules so that children could have a \u201cdouble recess,\u201d with more time to get outdoors or play<\/a>. In older grades, teachers led discussions about technology and its role in students\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

Emily, another P.S. 187 parent who spoke on the condition that her last name be withheld, said all the teachers, according to her children, embraced the screen-free week. Some used a white board, instead of a Smart Board. And her kids in different grades got to spend more time with each other in the school\u2019s garden, a program that she feels is under-utilized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey might\u2019ve groaned a little at the beginning of the week,\u201d Emily said of her kids. \u201cBecause, of course, screens are very addictive. And they serve a role. But they were so happy when I picked them up.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, a rep for the city\u2019s school system said the initiative reflected a \u201cshared commitment to supporting the whole child.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate the collaboration taking place in District 6, where families, educators, and community leaders are working together to thoughtfully explore innovative ways to support student well-being and engagement,\u201d said the spokeswoman, Chyann Tull.<\/p>\n

Kazi wants there to be more \u201cscreen breaks\u201d in future school years. But she also hopes the week-long experiment can serve as an opportunity to reflect on the surge in children\u2019s screen time during the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a> when schools pivoted to remote learning, and question if it\u2019s still beneficial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was about a pause for reflection,\u201d Kazi said. \u201cWe may be doing things that (are) not useful and also without thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As backlash to education technology continues to grow across New York City, dozens of Upper Manhattan public schools…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[97263,97264,9,24,56,63,65,64,97262,209,83952,2957,2958],"class_list":["post-249068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-district-superintendent","tag-education-technology","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-olympia-kazi","tag-public-schools","tag-screens","tag-upper-manhattan","tag-washington-heights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}