Opportunistic. That’s the word to describe how Joe Clement (’91) and Matt Miles (’06, ’07M) spotted a problem, identified a solution and took action to improve lives.

It started in the halls and classrooms of Chantilly High School in Northern Virginia, where they both teach. “Over time, we both noticed that something was changing with the students we were teaching,” said Clement, a teacher for 25 years.  “They were becoming less able to solve problems, less able to interact socially and less able to focus for long periods of time.” 

Clement and Miles have seen firsthand how damaging technology overuse and misuse have been to youth. Their new book, Screen Schooled, provides actionable steps for parents to become part of the solution to the problem—a problem some parents aren’t even plugged into.

Statistics back up the narrative that modern society is tech-driven. ABC’s “ScreenTime,” a two-hour 20/20 special that aired earlier this year, cited a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showing that 82% of Americans think social media is a waste of time, but 69% still engage in it every day.

A study in England found that if phones are not visible to high-school students in classrooms, students’ scores rise from 7% to 14% for the lowest-performing students. And here in the U.S., there is no national policy about devices in a classroom. That’s part of the problem, according to the authors.

“It seems like there’s a big push in education to get screens into classrooms for the purpose of having screens in classrooms,” Clement said about the educational technology industry.

Both teachers said their years at JMU set them up to make an impact on young people’s lives—lives that will be more productive without being attached to their devices.