Wednesday, December 03, 2014

'Books or tablets? There's no contest'

It's sad when you see a child with an iPad, writes Eleanor Doughty, children should be encouraged to pick up a book and get reading

Don't give your children access to a tablet, and surely they won't crave it? Photo: Getty Images
Ah, dear Hermione Norris. She’s moved to the country and, for some reason, this is news. But, more interestingly, she’s decided that her children should be warned away from technology because she doesn’t "care for any sort of social media". She continued to say that "I’m not even keen on email; it’s too invasive".

As much as I applaud Ms Norris' attempts to return to the ye olde world, I’m not convinced that email is "too invasive", as much as "a bit more convenient in quite a lot of scenarios when you don’t actually want to talk to someone on the phone".
I am all for handwritten cards, letters and other paper-made objects that are suitable for correspondence with a fountain pen. But one must concede that some technological 'evils' are also necessary. Like, say, email.

That's not to say, however, that I don't agree with the overall sentiment. Norris has a convincingly nice attitude of "get outside into the garden, get as dirty as you can, play. Be a child", one that is shared by many teachers.
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