Surprise and some astonishment has been caused among parents who have their children attending the only private school in the city of Ibiza by the recommendation they received on their cell phones through the official channel of Mestral School from the director of the center, Antonio Olmedilla, on December 19.
Despite the fact that virtually no teenager under the age of 16 is without a smartphone these days, and even less so among the upper classes who can afford to pay more than 761 euros a month for schooling their child, the school principal came out swinging by advising parents not to buy smartphones for their children under the age of 16.
“Free from the chains of social networks.”
“Now that the holidays are approaching, when we give each other gifts with our loved ones, as the headmaster of your children’s school, with the best of intentions, I would like to give you some advice: If you consider it essential, buy your child a simple “non-smart” phone if he or she is under 16,” Olmedilla suggests before wishing parents “happy holidays and time to enjoy quality time with their children, free from the chains of social networks.”
Ban on cell phones
To justify the at least surprising recommendation, the principal previously assures us that “I think one of the recent successes of Mestral School has been how well the students have responded to our ban on cell phones: they now talk more among themselves and look at screens less! But the smartphone issue is more serious than that.” ” Brain rot,” he continues, “has been voted word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary. It is defined as the ‘deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially seen as the result of excessive consumption of material (now particularly online content) considered trivial or unchallenging.'” As a “veteran educator,” he adds, “I am fully convinced that children should not have smartphones until the age of 16.” “Such devices, expose children to a bewildering world of inexplicable, sometimes harmful, sometimes even illegal material that children are not mature enough to handle. Even adults can find smartphones addictive: we do children no service if we throw them into this world too young.”
Ipads instead of books
It is curious that the director of a center that has opted for “an educational project that uses the iPad as the main transversal tool for the acquisition of all competencies”, according to the Mestral website, abhors screens. The one to one project is implemented from sixth grade and throughout ESO and is justified in that “it allows technology to be integrated into the teaching process in a natural way, encouraging cooperative learning and making the student the real protagonist”. The iPads are also used every week in different subjects by students in kindergarten, primary and high school. The iPads are the property of the school and parents pay a monthly fee for their use.
