The middle schooler had been begging to opt out, citing headaches from the Chromebook screen and a dislike of the AI chatbot recently integrated into it.
Parents across the country are taking steps to stop their children from using school-issued Chromebooks and iPads, citing concerns about distractions and access to inappropriate content that they fear hampers their kids’ education.



Other conditions exist. I have auditory processing disorder and one part of it is an involuntary disabling of my audio processing when my brain is trying to focus on something, particularly anything else to do with language like note-taking. My ears will “hear” but my brain won’t.
It wasn’t completely debilitating, but it made certain kinds of classes inordinately difficult for me. Discussion based classes were a nightmare for me, and no amount of practice could change how my brain works. So instead I pursued STEM where the notes are math and I could work ahead and tune in if I got stuck.
That being said, handwritten notes are still definitely the way to go in math!
Same!!! I have the auditory thingy and dyslexia, so writing (words, not math) was hell on earth for me for most of highschool. Getting to use a laptop in 11th and 12th grade was a godsent.
But in 10th grade I actually did something that mostly solved my hatred of handwriting: I taught myself calligraphy and whole-arm-writing. Now I love handwriting, don’t have pain doing it anymore, people compliment my writing, etc.
Though I still can’t listen to stuff while writing 🤷 luckily I was able to use a laptop in lectures (philosophy is very notes heavy), and after college it becomes irrelevant, thank god.
I also have auditory processing disorder. It sucks. Why I always liked teachers who wrote on the board as they lectured, I’d even read the chapter from the book instead of listening to the teacher. Thats great you found what worked for you! You found what worked and became successful despite your struggles! That’s resiliency!