to think that DD21 must move with the times

[backtotheolddhouse]

DD is a complete technophobe. As we are not well off we got onto the whole tech bandwagon quite late, but now DD is disgusted by pretty much all tech and I feel it’s holding her back.

She’s first in the family to go to uni, but hates it as she has few friends but refuses to use SM and has a flip phone.

Upset she has no BF but won’t use online dating.

Is looking for jobs as a teacher but rejected multiple interviews as they asked about her tech proficiency (which is good) and she doesn’t want to work in a school that uses tech outside ICT.

For teaching, it wouldn't be only about the curriculum.

As a professional in teaching…

Meetings can be virtual.
Lots of training is virtual.
Working at home in the evenings means needing access to school servers and sharepoints to access information.
Briefings, in clouding for safeguarding are emailed.
Planning documents are online, including to share with others.
Parent communication is emailed, dojo, virtual.
Leadership of subjects requires monitoring others and sharing with governors, usually electronically.
School assessment and tracking systems are electronic, progress measures and targets included.
Performance management records are electronic.
CPOMS is an electronic system for recording and reporting safeguarding concerns, a teachers duty.
Ofsted training and updates are via webinars…the expectation that access is freely available in and out of school hours…

I could go on.

She will struggle in many professions but she will not meet the Teaching Standards.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a750668ed915d3c7d529cad/Teachers_standard_information.pdf

Isn't a 'growth mindset' one of the first things they teach kids!

I can appreciate her point of view to an extent but it is difficult to work in the modern world without some kind of tech. Even my friend who is a tree surgeon, the kind of profession that’s so very practical and non-tech, feels he needs to maintain a website and be on the main social media platforms in order to market his services.

If she doesn’t end up teaching at a Steiner school she will probably need to embrace tech at work even if she shuns it outside of work.

Fair play if she's managing to do her banking with a flip phone!

This.

The whole of the opening post just reads 'oddly' to me.

I mean, fine to not want to be on social media, but nobody who is thinking of a career in teaching can actually be 'disgusted' by 'technology'.
All the things already posted are needed just to do the job, plus of course you need to be open to all sorts of ideas if teaching.

Has she done a Primary Ed degree ? Surely all this would have come up before ? What about when on her teaching practices etc ?
The whole scenario just sounds unlikely.

I'm a teacher and basically only use a board pen, worksheets and mini whiteboards (mini whiteboards are basically from the victorian era, they were called slates).

When you're doing your teacher training you do have to do a bit of hoop jumping to tick the IT in the classroom box. But after a couple of years of teaching, at a supportive school, you can find your own style. Mine is Old School Grumpy Luddite and tbf the kids tell me they are very happy with it, they get enough powerpoints in their other lessons.

So please tell your daughter that teaching could still be for her.

Are some posters reading the op right, or am I? It says the dd is actually proficient at tech and is only refusing to use it outside of specific IT lessons. Not in everything. It would be refreshing, as I said I’m sick of everything being pushed on to IT. Soon we won’t be going to the toilet without an IT programmed flush.

nobody who is thinking of a career in teaching can actually be 'disgusted' by 'technology'

I promise it is very possible to be a decent teacher and hate technology.

I'm trying to think what jobs involve very little tech these days 🤔 there can't be many. I don't see the issue with flipphone but she would need Internet via a laptop.

I can see the argument for low tech but it's impossible to be no tech to be honest

I sympathise with her. I'm a solicitor and look at screens ALL DAY LONG. All the advice around good sleep and health bangs on about reducing screen time but I can't. There are no books. No paper. Since covid, we don't even have the client lunches/ in person meetings, everything is on video. Even a meeting in the office is also on a screen as invariably there's one or two people wfh/another office. The only way to not look at screens for 60 hours a week would be to quit my career entirely.

Unfortunately, part of growing up is realising that work sucks and you need to pay the rent/mortgage.

Well my ds can only access the curriculum through technology so maybe remind her it’s for the benefit of children not just some trendy bandwagon? Or maybe not, having teacher who roll their eyes at text to speech is a battle to could have lived without.

This. My dyspraxic DS basically can't handwrite, I'd take a very dim view indeed of a teacher who would allow this to be a barrier to his written work.

Because of DS's challenges overall I don't have a very positive view of the schooling in this country, but one of the things they did do very well was prepare children for a tech-driven life. They were talking about where information comes from, how you filter it, how you find trusted sources, right at the beginning of school, it wasn't just something kept for high school history. Understanding information and where it comes from is essential and she's going to have to get over this if she wants a job in a modern school that takes this issues seriously.

Yes you’re correct! while I don’t agree with her, DD is reasonable and not a complete loon so just doesn’t want to work in schools where everything is on ipads/laptops or whatever, which seems to be common now.

To those asking yes she has completed her PGCE, used tech where she absolutely had to but not one bit more.

I am the computing lead at my school and I completely agree with your daughter. We teach the children to be computer literate and to use technology safely during timetabled computing time. Other than that we try to minimise the exposure to tech. I wholeheartedly believe that over exposure to tech and social media damages our children and how they develop. I have noticed huge changes in children throughout my 25 year career and it is very worrying. I personally do use technology myself but I deleted most of my social media about 10 years ago and am happier for it.

The old fashioned independent schools are where she needs to try and find work (if her qualifications are good enough). I have always worked at schools like these and got away with minimal tech use.

I do have to use email and the photocopier. That's about it

so just doesn’t want to work in schools where everything is on ipads/laptops or whatever, which seems to be common now.

but that is a long way from your opening post, where you put

DD is a complete technophobe

DD is disgusted by pretty much all tech

and she doesn’t want to work in a school that uses tech outside ICT

There is a very, very long road between the two.

Not sure if you are talking Primary or Secondary, but everything being on ipads or laptops isn't something I see in any of the schools I visit, but I see technology supporting students and teachers in many ways.

She needs to be less 'black or white' about this.

She's entitled to not have SM, of course, but the general negativity to tech is very unusual.

Schools need to move with the times, especially as many of the kids will use tech for work, in time. Tech packages for schools can be really expensive and the expectation is that they will be routinely used. Teachers don't get to opt in or out, they just have to get on with it.

Apologies if this comes out of left field but is she ND? Her stance reminds me of my DS a bit, who does this thing where he just takes against something and is convinced it's rubbish, often against all evidence. He really struggles to drag himself out of that kind of thinking, once he starts.

Sorry, by saying she doesn’t want a school that uses tech outside of ICT that’s what I was trying to say. I hadn’t realised I didn’t word it very clearly.

Naturally, she’s got to be ND and not actually a reasoned dissenter who doesn’t agree with the current zeitgeist. Which includes classifying everyone who isn’t passively going along with the increasingly scarily conformist groupthink as ND.

People have suggested to me (and her) that she may be autistic but she won’t consider it. Funnily enough she’s open about EVERYTHING but tech and the possibility of being ND.

I do however agree with this sentiment, any unusual thinking and the possibility of being ND is bandied about on MN.

Does she know that tech can really help some learners? I teach a visually impaired child. Due to the advancements in tech, he can access everything the rest of the class is accessing independently.

She should train as a Forest School Leader. Tech is only used as a tool.

I only asked because it was suggested by specialists that my DS may have ODD (oppositional Defiance Disorder) along with his ASD purely because he has a tendency to 'take against' certain things for unusual reasons.

I know many people with ODD can be very defiant, which my DS is not, but the way you describe your DDs grievances does sound very much like how my DS is, that's all.

I agree that sometimes people do suggest Autism for the maddest reasons but I absolutely was not.

Our school uses interactive whiteboards. Tech isn’t t just used for ICT.