Analogue Struggles and Digital Naivety

I’ve recently had two wildly different – yet strangely connected – conversations with teachers.

One teacher expressed frustration after asking his Grade 9 class to write 400 words—by hand—in their exercise books. Within minutes, students anxiously asked, “Can we bullet-point this?” or “Can we use our laptops instead?” The idea of sustained writing felt overwhelming.

They’re struggling with basic analogue skills, he says.

Another teacher voiced a different concern: her students, despite being so-called digital natives, were struggling to use AI to generate ideas for a short essay. She had assumed their digital fluency, but instead, they stared blankly at their screens, unsure of how to begin.

They’re struggling with essential digital skills, she says.

These two experiences expose an unexpected paradox: today’s students are surrounded by technology, yet their stamina for sustained writing and their confidence in digital creativity may be far lower than we think.

So, are we failing our children?

The Push and Pull of Education

It feels as though our schools are being pulled in two distinct yet essential directions:

• The Push to the Future. Schools must prepare students for a rapidly evolving digital world, equipping them with …digital skills in artificial Intelligence, exponential technologies, digital discernment, and prompt engineering. This push demands adaptability, relevance, and technological fluency. But how effectively are we doing this? Are we teaching students to use new technologies critically and effectively or leaving their digital skills to chance?
• The Pull to the Past. Simultaneously, schools know that they must also preserve foundational analogue disciplines – deep reading, reflective writing, and critical thinking – that have shaped intellectual rigour for generations. These habits build stamina, resilience, and meaningful engagement with knowledge.

Both forces are necessary. However, without intentional balance, we risk failing to effectively address either, leaving our students neither fully literate nor digitally competent.

I suspect that this is the current state of education. We find ourselves caught between a rock and a hard place.

The Decline of Reading and Writing Stamina

Recent studies affirm what many educators experience daily: Students increasingly struggle with sustained reading and writing tasks. A 2025 Central Times study highlighted that 64% of high school students regularly skipped chapters or relied on summaries, impacting their comprehension and readiness for higher education.

Other voices I respect are saying the same:

• Reduced Reading Engagement: Pasi Sahlberg (2023) notes, “We are seeing more distracted minds, fewer deep readers, and a loss of patience for slow, thoughtful work.”
• Shrinking Attention Spans: David Gurteen (2024) reports that “people are reading less and understanding less,” mainly due to short-form digital content.
• Declining Writing Stamina: Jean Twenge (2023) emphasises that “students’ ability to sit down and write multi-paragraph responses—without relying on AI or shortcuts—is at an all-time low.“

This decline isn’t due to students’ incapacity – it’s because they’ve rarely been required to engage deeply or sustain their efforts.

They lack long-form stamina.

Schools Contribute to Long-form Decline

Unintentionally, schools have contributed to this issue through practices that prioritise immediate engagement over sustained intellectual effort.

• Fragmented Reading: Providing summaries, digital highlights, or excerpts instead of whole texts.
• Uncritical Use of Digital Tools: Students rely heavily on AI-generated content without being explicitly taught to engage or evaluate sources critically.
• Reduced Writing Expectations: Allowing bullet points, slideshows, and quick responses rather than structured, reflective, and extended writing tasks.
• Short-term Engagement: Lessons increasingly favour quick, high-energy activities over tasks demanding prolonged cognitive effort.

While these practices have educational value, the lack of intentional balance has unintentionally diminished essential literacy and critical-thinking skills.

We know when our students are enjoying our lessons. We want them to be engaged and happy, and we want them to enjoy our classes each week. So, if we want to avoid the groans and disgruntlement when we ask students to read or write something much longer than a tweet, we might unconsciously start designing learning activities that we think will keep everyone happy. It’s easy to assume that someone else will ask them write that essay or complete that silent reading.

But if everyone is entertaining kids with Kahoot!, then who is actually doing the teaching? Anyone? Anyone?

An Intentional Approach

Addressing this dual challenge requires deliberate action to integrate traditional long-form literacy skills with intentional digital education.

It needs a whole-school approach.

I’m not pretending to be an expert in knowing what we might do here. Honestly, if I knew what to do, we would be doing it already in my school. But here are some of the things that others have shared that we might consider doing:

1. Prioritize Deep Reading

• Mandate at least one complete, conceptually rich book per term.
• Schedule regular sustained silent reading sessions that emphasise interdisciplinary connections.
• Assign tasks requiring students to deeply analyse, interpret, and synthesise themes and concepts.

2. Rebuild Writing Stamina

• Set expectations for structured, analytical writing tasks across disciplines.
• Incorporate regular handwritten reflective journals and concept maps to deepen cognitive engagement.
• Could you replace timed writing exercises with tasks demanding thoughtful synthesis, application, and critical analysis?

3. Explicitly Teach AI Literacy and Digital Discernment

• Introduce explicit lessons on AI prompt engineering, teaching students to craft effective prompts and critically evaluate AI-generated content.
• Embed regular instruction on digital discernment, distinguishing reliable sources from misinformation.
• Position AI as a supportive thinking tool rather than a shortcut, enhancing rather than replacing deep engagement.

4. Balance Digital and Analogue Learning

• Implement clear ratios of digital-to-analogue learning activities to ensure digital tools complement rather than dominate learning.
• Establish structured Deep-Thinking Time dedicated to analogue activities such as thematic journaling and interdisciplinary inquiry.
• Teach students explicitly how to engage in sustained, focused, and critical thinking.

An Intentional Balance

It seems obvious that schools must intentionally balance the push toward digital fluency with the pull of foundational literacy – because neither will develop by accident.

We cannot assume that students will naturally acquire deep reading, writing stamina, or critical thinking skills if we constantly design learning around engagement over endurance. Nor can we assume that digital natives are digitally fluent simply because they’ve grown up with technology.

I am not advocating the rejection of AI, digital learning, innovation, or clinging to particular educational models. Instead, I call for the intentional, structured integration of deep conceptual thinking and robust digital skills.

If we don’t make these intentional shifts, we risk complicity in educating our children to be neither digitally competent nor intellectually resilient.

Because if we don’t commit intentionally to both,

we are failing our children.

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References

• Biesta, G. (2023). World-Centred Education: A View for the Present. Routledge.
• Claxton, G. (2023). The Future of Learning: Stamina, Resilience, and Independent Thought. Learning Power Press.
• Gurteen, D. (2024). “The Decline of Reading and Its Impact on Understanding.” Conversational Leadership Blog.
• Luckin, R. (2023). AI for Schoolteachers: Understanding AI in Education. Routledge.
• Sahlberg, P. (2023). Screen Damage: The Dangers of Digital Overuse in Schools. Oxford University Press.
• Twenge, J. (2023). Generations: How Digital Life is Changing Childhood, Adolescence, and Adulthood. Simon & Schuster.
• Central Times (2025). “Skipping Chapters: How Decreasing Reading Stamina Impacts College Readiness.” Retrieved from https://www.centraltimes.org/showcase/2025/01/28/skipping-chapters-how-decreasing-reading-stamina-impacts-college-readiness
• The Chronicle of Higher Education (2024). “Is This the End of Reading?” Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/is-this-the-end-of-reading

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