The article “What we discovered when our daughter unplugged for a school year” (March 31) strengthened my conviction that we have lost our way regarding educating our children.

I would grade Singapore’s policies promoting the use of digital devices in schools, for example home-based learning and personal learning devices, a solid D minus.

For years, my wife and I kept our children at a careful distance from smartphones and other digital devices. We avoided giving our eldest a smartphone until he entered secondary school, relenting only when we discovered that his school disseminated announcements and homework instructions through electronic means.

Unfortunately, we noticed an immediate plunge in attention span after my son began using his phone. He would occasionally pull out his phone to read a message from his friends, forgetting that he was in the middle of a conversation with us. He could not focus on his schoolwork to the extent he could just a few months earlier. His learning retention also suffered as he started typing notes instead of writing.

Though we agreed on boundaries, it was difficult for him to adhere to them. He finally approached us to help him by setting time limits via parental controls.

I believe many parents are doing their best to help their children build healthy relationships and develop a solid foundation for lifelong learning (Time to limit screen time for young children, April 4).

However, using digital devices at scale in secondary school has made this much more difficult. From Neil Postman’s seminal Amusing Ourselves To Death, to more recent books, for example, Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation, and studies, there is evidence that introducing devices in the formative years opens the floodgates to effects we may not be able to contain.

Recently, a friend announced he was going on a digital device fast for a few days. It was a refreshing experience for him to focus completely on one task or person at a time. When I met him for a coffee, we enjoyed our chat thoroughly without interruption.

I urge policymakers to thoroughly engage parents and educators before expanding the use of digital devices for education. Leave the choice of introducing digital devices in the hands of parents, and do not disadvantage those who choose to take a different path.

Joel Chan Yi-Hsiung