Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, Welcome, welcome, welcome. It's
Speaker 1: time now for our community connection right here on K one,
Speaker 1: the one you trust, and with us today we have
Speaker 1: Superintendent Chuck McCall you, and also the executive director from
Speaker 1: Bartlesville Public Schools Foundation, Blair Ellis.
Speaker 2: Hi kids, Good morning Tom. How are you warm enough
Speaker 2: for you? It's gonna be look at about freezing today.
Speaker 2: We're excited about that. Goodness sakes.
Speaker 1: Well, I know we've got some big stuff coming along,
Speaker 1: but we also have another list of great things to
Speaker 1: talk about with the schools.
Speaker 2: Just fire away, young man. You bet, Thanks, Tom, appreciate that. Yes,
Speaker 2: Blair is here with me today. We wanted to start
Speaker 2: off with we're hosting an event the Public School and
Speaker 2: Public School Foundation. You know, we've been on here Tom
Speaker 2: for several months talking about social media and cell phone
Speaker 2: use and the book The Anxious Generation kind of Generated
Speaker 2: has generated a lot of discussion at our school at
Speaker 2: all level. We've had on our board agenda now for
Speaker 2: about seven months in a row, and the result of that.
Speaker 2: One of the strategies has come out of that is
Speaker 2: we decided that we needed to try to help and
Speaker 2: we don't have all the answers. I don't think anybody
Speaker 2: really does. But what I like about the book The
Speaker 2: Anxious Generation, there's some research that comes that tells us,
Speaker 2: you know, there's some challenge just causing some problems. And
Speaker 2: so we're going to host a forum for parents on Tuesday,
Speaker 2: January twenty eighth at the High School and the Fine
Speaker 2: Arts Cinea auditoriums. We from seven to eight. We'll start
Speaker 2: at seven, we'll be finished at eight. So we're going
Speaker 2: to be very cognizant of people's times and we're going
Speaker 2: to the point of it is just to share information
Speaker 2: with our parents. We want to help. And we have
Speaker 2: a panel. We put a panel together. I'm going to
Speaker 2: moderate the discussion. On the panel, it is going to
Speaker 2: be Judge Russell Becklaw. We're gonna have a local pediatrician,
Speaker 2: doctor Helen Mumpus, Kristin Flick, who teaches at Central Middle School.
Speaker 2: She's a longtime elementary teacher and she's going to be
Speaker 2: there as a parent also as a teacher. But she
Speaker 2: has a senior, an eighth grader and a third grader.
Speaker 2: She's really involved with k life and it's pretty passionate
Speaker 2: about this topic. And then we have a couple of
Speaker 2: a couple of students. We've got senior Emma Mackey, young lady,
Speaker 2: and then a young man, a junior, Jackson Miller. They
Speaker 2: serve on my advisory council. So that's our panel. There
Speaker 2: is the opportunity we've sent some there's information out on
Speaker 2: social media people can submit if they want to submit
Speaker 2: some questions or something they want to hear about. But
Speaker 2: we're going to give all those folks the ability to
Speaker 2: share some information and then hopefully get some have some
Speaker 2: dialogue with our audience. This is this is kind which
Speaker 2: one to get started. We just want to help and
Speaker 2: so that's all. We want to work together. We can't
Speaker 2: do anything in isolation. You know, the school can't have
Speaker 2: some new policy that's going to fix everything. You know,
Speaker 2: we make we continue to make adjustments at the school level.
Speaker 2: But you know, we all just want to work together
Speaker 2: and prepare our kids, uh for the next step. So
Speaker 2: it's gonna be Tuesday, January twenty eighth, from seven to eight,
Speaker 2: and we have tenderly plan on a couple more of
Speaker 2: these sessions next month at our middle schools, when at
Speaker 2: Central and one over at Madison. And this meeting in
Speaker 2: particular is going to come after our we have an
Speaker 2: enrollment session for incoming freshmen, so a lot of parents
Speaker 2: are gonna be on campus right before that meeting, and
Speaker 2: so that's kind of that's why we picked on Tuesday,
Speaker 2: the twenty eighth, and so really looking forward to the meeting.
Speaker 2: We're going to help everyone will share and spread the word.
Speaker 2: It's not just for high school parents, as for anybody
Speaker 2: that wants to come, We want you to come out.
Speaker 2: You know, if you don't have a kid in school,
Speaker 2: that's okay, just to come out and come out in
Speaker 2: the information. Yeah, it's really good. So blaringything to add
Speaker 2: to that, I.
Speaker 3: Just say, you know, the value of having those panelists
Speaker 3: is really they're not experts in the fields of cell
Speaker 3: phones or technology, but they can all kind of share
Speaker 3: their perspectives and what they're actually seeing, whether it's in
Speaker 3: the courtroom or in the pediatrician's office, or at home
Speaker 3: or in the classroom, what they're seeing. The impact is
Speaker 3: of unlimited screens and social media.
Speaker 1: When you mentioned Judge Matclaw and I read the story
Speaker 1: earlier today on our website about this, that's the first
Speaker 1: thing that crossed my mind. Kids are getting in trouble
Speaker 1: because they're mimicking things they see on social media. I'm
Speaker 1: very impressed to see that the judge is going.
Speaker 2: To be there. Yeah, and he comes. He speaks to
Speaker 2: our schools often, we have him come out, and you know,
Speaker 2: he's had several Uh, there's a lot of back claws
Speaker 2: that come through barns with public schools, there's been a lot,
Speaker 2: and so he's really, you know, here to serve. And
Speaker 2: it's that's one of the things that bothers me the
Speaker 2: most about, you know, with the cell phones and videoing,
Speaker 2: and it's just been it's just part of it is
Speaker 2: that you know, people wanting to video things or catch
Speaker 2: somebody doing something or doing something inappropriate and posting it
Speaker 2: that they can try to generate more likes or attention.
Speaker 2: And that's just sad. I mean, that's wrong. We should
Speaker 2: be better than that. And and but there's also some
Speaker 2: criminal things that can come If you have things that
Speaker 2: come across that you share that are inappropriate, you know,
Speaker 2: related to pornography, you can get yourself in a whole
Speaker 2: lot of trouble for the rest of your life. And
Speaker 2: so there's that's kind of the extreme of that, you know,
Speaker 2: but we do want to share. That's the reality. We
Speaker 2: want people to be uh to be aware. And just
Speaker 2: as there are some recommendations that come out in the book,
Speaker 2: and really there's four of them that what the author,
Speaker 2: doctor Jonathan Height that he recommends. One is kids don't
Speaker 2: need a smartphone before they're in high school. The second
Speaker 2: one is they don't need to be on social media
Speaker 2: before they're sixteen. And the third is school at school,
Speaker 2: kids really don't need access to their cell phone. And
Speaker 2: then four is kids needed far more unsupervised play. They
Speaker 2: need to play, and so that's really important. You know,
Speaker 2: we've been talking about that a lot too, even at
Speaker 2: the school level. How we can do more in really
Speaker 2: teaching our kids and our parents how to play without
Speaker 2: having to play on a screen.
Speaker 1: Well, that kind of takes care of two issues. One
Speaker 1: the psychological issue of being addicted to the screens and
Speaker 1: two actually getting up and moving and perhaps maybe lowering
Speaker 1: that obesity level a little.
Speaker 2: That's no, that's exactly right. I know that we made
Speaker 2: some adjustments at the school level, and we'll continue to
Speaker 2: make adjustments. You know, we used to when we had
Speaker 2: a if we did have a virtual day for elementary kids,
Speaker 2: we would say and devices home. Well, we just soopped
Speaker 2: that this year, you know. And so because it is
Speaker 2: a fine line, I think for all of us, because
Speaker 2: it's the reality is it's the world that we live in,
Speaker 2: and we need to prepare. We need to prepare our
Speaker 2: kids for the world. And just like us, you know,
Speaker 2: there's now when you know that's happened since the pandemic.
Speaker 2: Now if there's a bad weather or there's the ability
Speaker 2: you know, telehealth, there's ability to if you can't get somewhere,
Speaker 2: you need to have a leand to learn how to
Speaker 2: have a virtual meeting and what's proper etiquette for that.
Speaker 2: You may be doing a job interview, first round of
Speaker 2: interviews are all handled remotely, and so that's the reality.
Speaker 2: You know, we need to make sure that we are
Speaker 2: prepared and kids know how to interact in that world.
Speaker 2: But but I think as a bigger thing, we also
Speaker 2: need to help them learn, to help them grow. They
Speaker 2: need to learn how to live in the world without that.
Speaker 2: You can't live in the world without your phone and
Speaker 2: without your social media and learn how to interact with others.
Speaker 2: That's going to be very very interesting. And what's the
Speaker 2: next coming up on the twenty Y's Tuesday, January twenty eighth.
Speaker 2: It's going to be from seven to eight o'clock at
Speaker 2: the high School and the Fine Arts Center auditorium. No
Speaker 2: registration is required, People just need to show up. We'll
Speaker 2: start at seven, we'll be finished at eight, and we
Speaker 2: at this point, we're planning on having a couple more sessions,
Speaker 2: one over at Central and one at Madison in February.
Speaker 2: We're gonna kind of build those around some of the
Speaker 2: couple of parent nights that they have scheduled, and we'll
Speaker 2: invite everybody to come. I mean, that's a good opportunity.
Speaker 2: And know, if you maybe just have elementary age kids
Speaker 2: and you want to see the middle school that your
Speaker 2: kid's going to go to, that's just another opportunity to
Speaker 2: get into the middle school. But really encourage people to
Speaker 2: come to that. I know that you know, even hear
Speaker 2: about it at the legislative level. You know some states
Speaker 2: or the process of banning phones at different levels. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, there's legislators, there's lots of different legislation that
Speaker 2: has been proposed, and who knows what's going to happen
Speaker 2: this time of year. They haven't gotten the session yet,
Speaker 2: but I know there's been give them a couple of
Speaker 2: weeks exactly it'll happen. But you know, there's some legislators
Speaker 2: that really are passionate about this topic, and so there
Speaker 2: could be some legislation that comes across that we are
Speaker 2: for to do some things, but the reality is, I
Speaker 2: don't want to do something. I want us to control
Speaker 2: our own destiny. And the reality is we know this
Speaker 2: is not good and we want to help. That's really
Speaker 2: all that we want to do is we want to
Speaker 2: help our parents, and so that's our goal of the
Speaker 2: meeting is so we can hopefully work together and work
Speaker 2: through this challenge, because it's not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: If you had any questions or even any subtle pushback
Speaker 1: since the announcement.
Speaker 2: They're going talking about some of the feedback that we've
Speaker 2: had so far.
Speaker 3: We've had a little bit well, I think all the parents, everybody,
Speaker 3: it's been really positive. I haven't heard any anything negative.
Speaker 3: We've already done this survey. You send out the survey
Speaker 3: and again that's available on our Facebook page and survey
Speaker 3: parents can take about how their kids are using screens
Speaker 3: at home. That's of course helpful for our panelists, but
Speaker 3: they can also submit questions, what are their concerns, And
Speaker 3: everybody's pretty similar. I mean they have conversations a lot
Speaker 3: with their kids about how much they're using screens, what
Speaker 3: they're doing on screens. It's kind of a constant conversation.
Speaker 3: We just want to give them some resources to better
Speaker 3: and more effectively have those conversations. Yeah, just a lot
Speaker 3: of questions and about how best to enforce those limits
Speaker 3: and what other parents are doing. Which again I know
Speaker 3: as a parent reading this book, that's really helped me
Speaker 3: the most is just even just this weekend, having conversations
Speaker 3: with my kids, I'm kind of in powered. No, I
Speaker 3: am doing the right thing. You know, you're not entitled
Speaker 3: to your phone all the time, So keeping that conversation going,
Speaker 3: I think is going to be really helpful.
Speaker 1: What you're gonna find out is that many of these kids,
Speaker 1: these age they'll say, oh, I can't live without this,
Speaker 1: I can't live without that, And then quietly they'll say,
Speaker 1: thank God, I can get away from it because they
Speaker 1: felt like they've been kind of held prisoner by it
Speaker 1: and they don't know how to break for you, you.
Speaker 2: Know, that's right. And two we see it. I see
Speaker 2: it from adults as well. I mean we have you know,
Speaker 2: we all see adults that are addicted to their phone
Speaker 2: and addicted to social media. And you think about it
Speaker 2: from you know, from a kids perspective, if you know
Speaker 2: mom or dad or whoever you know, Wait just a minute, howey,
Speaker 2: I need to check what's on Facebook, or I need
Speaker 2: to make this comment, or I need to do that.
Speaker 2: As opposed to you know, being engaged with your kids.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's just that's the I mean, you go
Speaker 2: out in the mountain in the world and you see
Speaker 2: that happening all the time. So I think just a
Speaker 2: reminder for all of us, just because I think we
Speaker 2: need to help, we all need to be more present
Speaker 2: and so uh because some of the things that come
Speaker 2: with and people are addicted to their phone. It talks
Speaker 2: about it in the book, you know, is that attention fragmentation.
Speaker 2: People are so scattered. I think they're used to getting
Speaker 2: just videos and things that continue to come on in
Speaker 2: the spreen instead of just kind of pausing let their
Speaker 2: mind rest, you know. Read think people need to have
Speaker 2: more of those experiences. And also sleep deprivation. You know,
Speaker 2: people are so addicted to it's it's a huge thing,
Speaker 2: and especially for our teenagers. You know, they're not getting
Speaker 2: to sleep anyway as it is, and so this is
Speaker 2: something else that can that can negatively impact them. And
Speaker 2: so anyway, so we just want to keep the conversation
Speaker 2: going and we just want to help. And so I
Speaker 2: think it's good for our parents to be with other
Speaker 2: parents and so that they can have some conversations because
Speaker 2: you know, many times our kids, you know, all that
Speaker 2: you hear from them as well, everybody else has this
Speaker 2: or everyone else is doing this, and so your parents
Speaker 2: feel that naturally, you feel that pressure. You want to
Speaker 2: make sure you're providing the best for your kid, and
Speaker 2: you want to think you're being mean to your kid
Speaker 2: or whatever. And the reality is, you know, it's okay
Speaker 2: to say it's okay for us we can band together
Speaker 2: and say no, we're not going to do that.
Speaker 1: You know, that's that's really good, It really is. Oh right,
Speaker 1: So watching that is Tuesday the twenty eighth, seven o'clock.
Speaker 1: Find the Arts Center and it's right there at the
Speaker 1: high school. Doesn't cost you anything but your time, and
Speaker 1: you got plenty of that after seven o'clock, that's.
Speaker 2: Right, and well, and we got plenty of room. You know,
Speaker 2: we see twelve hundred people there, so just come on out.
Speaker 2: We encourage them to count.
Speaker 3: We're hoping to have some handouts for parents to take
Speaker 3: with them on just some resources for different like monitoring apps,
Speaker 3: and again we're not making any recommendations on what to use.
Speaker 3: We just want to share with parents what we know
Speaker 3: is out there and available, and they can do their
Speaker 3: own research and determine what's best for their family.
Speaker 1: I think this is probably the best community project, let
Speaker 1: alone a school project, that I've seen in many years.
Speaker 2: I think so too. Okay, It's that's the world we
Speaker 2: live in. We just want to help things. We just
Speaker 2: want to help things get better. I want to thank
Speaker 2: you both for being in here and.
Speaker 1: Share with us today.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thanks for having us folks.
Speaker 1: You have been watching and listening to our community