Virtue Can’t Be Learned from Devices
The COVID pandemic forced schools to manage the most rapid transformation of classrooms in our lifetimes. School administrators contended with lockdowns, quarantines, barriers, masks, distancing, and fear. The most consequential transformation was so-called “distance learning,” which sought simultaneously to impose and overcome physical absence from the classroom, substituting electronic networks and screens. Some schools have considered permanently adopting online tools and digital devices that were acquired during the pandemic. But before we accept screen-mediated schooling as inevitable or convenient, we should consider how this digital transformation might undermine schools’ educational missions. If a core purpose of education is to help…