April 3, 2025

Dear Families,                               

We need to speak about phones, tablets, and the online lives of our children.  I don’t mean discussing how these devices affect your child. We need to talk about how devices are impacting all children in our community.

We will have four, no-judgment conversations about keeping how electronic devices are impacting CPE1 children’s overall health, development, and learning.  Please participate in at least one.

For grades 2-5, we will talk twice on Thursday, April 10 (8:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.). 

For pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade, we will talk twice on Thursday, May 1 (8:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.). 

Children spend more time with devices than many of us realize.  Your kindergartener might not have a phone, but does she ask to use yours while you’re still walking home at the end of the day?  Your third grader might not have a phone, but is he watching TikTok on someone else’s device during after-school?  Meanwhile, children who do have devices are growing dependent.  Some of our youngest students have hit their grown-ups for taking away the iPad.

The excitement of alerts, likes, and emojis makes many children crave screentime.   Though every family sets limits,  kids teach each other to avoid monitoring.  Our school has third graders who, with tablets under their blankets, FaceTime their friends at 2:00 in the morning.  We have children who save contact information under fake names, so parents won’t know who’s actually texting.  Yes, grown-ups can do a key-word search for cursing in a group chat; fourth graders know a key-word search will not detect selfies with middle finger pointing at the camera. 

Devices enrich our lives.  They make raising kids easier.  They also push our children away from us – to communication and behaviors no one adult can fully see.  That’s why each  family needs the rest of our community. 

We will have childcare for the evening meetings, but these meetings won’t be on Zoom.  Let’s connect the old-fashioned way, without screens between us.

More Donations for Grades K-3

Last night, I attended a celebration at the Tweed Courthouse, headquarters of our public schools.  For the second year in a row, a proud CPE1 alum gave money to our current students.

Many of you know NYC Kids RISE.  If your child is in grades K-3, your child already has college savings account through Kids RISE.  In fact, about 282,000 New York City students now have Kids RISE savings accounts.  RISE has given them more than $42 million for college.

Now, all CPE1 third graders have a little more in their accounts. Craig Canton was a student at CPE1 in the 1980s.  His mother, Cachi, taught third graders here, and now Craig is honoring today’s third graders.  His donation to Kids RISE will add a little more to each third grader’s savings account. Craig is supporting his old school by encouraging our kids to plan for college and career training. 

If your child is in grades K-3, you can keep adding, tax-free, to your child’s Kids RISE savings account.  The money will keep growing until your child needs it after high school.  Be sure to tell your child this money is waiting for future.  And, if you need help activating your child’s savings account, please let me know.