by Katie Singer www.electronicsilentspring.com
As schools open for a new year, I highly recommend:
Victoria Dunckley, MD's Reset Your Child's Brain: A Four-Week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic Screen-Time. Hundreds of children--including those with psychotic and autistic behaviors--have benefitted from child psychiatrist Dunckley's program. She also reports that interactive screens (i.e. video games) are more harmful to brain development than passive TV.
My own report, "Calming Behavior in Children with Autism & ADHD," presents pediatrician Toril Jelter, MD's free protocol, which includes turning Wi-Fi off for at least 12 hours every night. www.electronicsilentspring.com/calming-behavior/
What and how do we teach our children?
Parents and teachers need to navigate things no one's prepared to handle: climate change, GMOs, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) exposure, Electronic Screen Syndrome, etc. As technology saturates our society, what do we want children to cultivate? How do we encourage humanness (relationship to nature, compassion for self and others, acceptance of vulnerability, self-control, ability to resolve conflict)?
Corporations now aim to create "digital citizens." Apple and Pearson sell school districts an iPad for every child, routers for every classroom, digital curricula that replaces discussion with electronically sent questions and answers. Corporations collect billions of dollars and data-mined profiles of each child for lifelong marketing. Rather than teach by screens, encourage students and school personnel to:
* Compare the growth of seeds planted beside and far from Wi-Fi router.
* Learn how EMR exposure increases risk of diseases including brain cancer at saferemr.com and in "Color Charts: at bioinitiative.org.
* Learn how to disable Wi-Fi and remove wireless "smart boards." Get hard-wired Internet, mice, keyboards, speakers, monitors.
* Learn why underwriters advise against insuring for damages to health caused by wireless technologies.
* Determine EMR exposure safety standards for the school. (At what age can people safely use mobile devices? For how many minutes per day? What scientific studies back up your standards?)
* Study "How Green is Your Cloud" from Greenpeace to learn that if the cloud were a country, it would rank fifth in energy use since it requires air conditioning. Jane Anne Morris' "Eat, Sleep, Click" explains how much bike pedaling we'd each need to do for a bike-powered Internet. What ideas does your community have for reducing the Internet's use of natural resources?
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