In the early 1500’s, the artist Michelangelo painted a fresco called The Creation of Adam, depicting God’s creation of Adam, the first man in the book of Genesis.  The art shows the artist’s take on God reaching out with his finger to touch his new creation, the touch representing the relationship between the two.  After all, it does take at least two to create and maintain a relationship.

In education today, much research is pointing to relationships between teachers and students as the main reason students are successful and stay in school.  Professional developments are focused on engagement and learning, giving us all kinds of little tricks and strategies to use in our teaching, but it really all boils down to building those relationships with kids.  And then we shoot ourselves in the foot by putting kids in front of a screen most of the day and night.

As a nation we are concerned about people, especially young people being isolated, lonely, bullied and suicidal.  The suicide rate in this country increased by 24% from 1999-2014.  As of 2018, the number is still climbing and is the highest number ever, the 7th leading cause of death in males and the 14th in females.  Of course I understand that depression, anxiety, mental illness and other things factor into this, but what if there is some kind of correlation between the amount of time people spend with screens as compared to other people?  Just wondering.

In a world where we have to campaign for people to just be kind, doesn’t it make you wonder if we’ve somehow gotten away from dealing with people to the point that we don’t know what kindness is?  After, you don’t have to be kind to technology – you ask, it gives.  It fills in your time, it keeps you occupied, it does things for you, never complains and never asks for anything in return.  Bullying seems to be at an all time high and not only do bullies not care, nobody seems to know how to deal with them because there are no relationships.  Dealing with situations like this takes discussion and debate, it takes the ability to confide in others for advice.  Instead we go to our devices to see what Google says about it.

It all started innocently enough, some cool, space age tool that we could play with and use to make our lives easier.  Little did we know it would take over.  There is research now that states why and how screens are unhealthy for children and yet schools insist on using them more and more in order to be technologically advanced and give kids an advantage educationally.  We are more willing to spend time with kids staring at images on a whiteboard from Kindergarten (me included) than we are at taking time to teach kids how to treat and deal with each other.  Sometimes my kids go weeks at the beginning of school and don’t know each others names yet.

And it’s not just kids of course.  Every adult I know is glued to their cell phone and iPad and laptop.  Again, me included.  And for those of us who are introverts, the phone can be that crutch that keeps me from having to make eye contact.  There are a few schools across the country that are making a concerted effort to teach kids how to greet each other, to shake hands and have conversations.  Why?  Well, as we watch adults today, some in leadership who wouldn’t know how to build relationships and speak to each other using basic kindness and civility if it bit them on the butt, it seems obvious.  We certainly don’t want this trend to continue.  Or maybe we don’t care?

I got the idea for this blog from a picture shared by a colleague who recently attended an technology education conference.  Now, before I sound like I’m bashing tech eduction, I’m not, as I know my colleague is as passionate about his discipline as I am about mine.  And again, as a tool, I think technology can be a great help.  However, it was the backdrop for the session that literally made me sad.  It was a take on The Creation of Adam, only God’s hand was a robot hand.  A cold, unfeeling hand reaching down to touch the human hand of someone.  Perhaps me.  Perhaps you.  Perhaps the children in my classes.

I certainly don’t want to blame technology for all of the disconnect in this world – life is much more complicated than that.  However, I do believe that when we allow technology to be our go to instead of another person, we’re allowing ourselves and our children to miss out on the greatest thing in life – each other.  Sure, I know technology markets itself as a way to connect, but virtually is just not the same as face to face. It’s going to be hard you know – giving up some of our devices on occasion, but our kids and grandkids are only young once.  And while it’s the easy way out to put a device in front of toddler or even an infant when they’re being cranky or demanding, are the possible lasting effects worth it?  Technology is supposed to make things better but is it really?  Are we really looking at the Destruction of Adam rather than the creation of relationships?