Dear 21st Century Dad, my fifteen-year old daughter is on MSN all night. I have no idea how she can talk on the telephone, use the keyboard, and do her homework at the same time. Her grades are suffering. We are having shouting matches over the computer.
Dear 20th Century Parent,
Are we talking about multi distractions or multi tasking? Wasting time or collaborative learning? Are our daughter’s grades suffering because she is mixing MSN with homework, or are there other extenuating circumstances like her involvement with the other gender? Has she decided to trade a low academic self-esteem for the benefits of being a social butterfly? In the subjects our daughter is failing, are the teachers any good? Is she spending two or six hours a night on MSN?
Maybe it’s time to be a 21st Century Parent. Make contact with a group of her peers; ask them about their use of computers, about homework and MSM. The asking of questions and the solicitation of answers can be more productive than shouting matches. Safety of kids on line must be the premium issue here. Be prepared. Check out Web Aware below before you talk to the kids.
We can get a last laugh at this one. Imagine our daughter as a mother yelling at her daughter to finish her homework, or she’ll spread a virus that will upload a million math questions into her wrist implant. Of course to no avail. Her friends will have readied the anti-virus for indignant parents.
Google:
1. Be Web Aware - Home and 2. key into YouTube Homework coping skills
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