The New York Times renewed the nation’s discussion about the place and role of technology in schools last month when they ran an article about the Waldorf School in Silicon Valley, where technology executives send their kids in part because the school eschews technology.  I believe I linked to the article in a Morning Metro.  (NBC Nightly News followed up with stories about both sides of this coin a couple days ago.  Both can be viewed after the jump)

The article was impactful, mostly because it brought up a whole host of unanswered questions.  When asked, the executives believed that technology in the classroom had limited benefits at such a young age and that negative side effects of classroom activities involving technology outweighed any positive effects.

But of course, while such an example can provide one example of pros and cons in this ‘technology in schools’ debate, it would take a dissertation of a few hundred pages to take a stab at anything more specific like, “When is the best time to give kids a cell phone/laptop/iPad?”  “What is lost when you give children a cell phone/laptop/iPad?”  “What is gained?”

No doubt, these are questions being raised within countless education circles today.  And each school system or individual school makes it’s own decision, based on any number of valid or invalid reasons.

But how important do parents believe this decision is?  Do you defer to your school district?  Defer to certain academic studies?  Defer to the seemingly hypocritical decisions of Silicon Valley parents?  Get lost in a tug-of-war of the technological pros and cons of convenience?

A parent recently wrote in to DM and wanted to know your thoughts.

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