The middle schooler had been begging to opt out, citing headaches from the Chromebook screen and a dislike of the AI chatbot recently integrated into it.
Parents across the country are taking steps to stop their children from using school-issued Chromebooks and iPads, citing concerns about distractions and access to inappropriate content that they fear hampers their kids’ education.



Damn that sounds rough. I’ve got some dyslexic family members and I can’t imagine combining their struggles with auditory processing disorder.
Nah, I managed surprisingly well. In third grade I did really intense dyslexic-specific tutoring (9h a week), and it helped massively. I actually ended up scoring the highest reading comprehension score in my random regional school’s class in 5th grade, I think because of it. There were struggles, but nothing I couldn’t live with. One of my best friends was trans (not publicly back then, ofc), and trust me their school experience was far, far more difficult. I just felt some camaraderie, finding someone else with a audio processing disorder; I didn’t mean to fish for sympathy or anything like that.
Yeah, our struggles definitely pale in comparison to marginalized groups. And no worries! I didn’t think you were, I just know how much my brother-in-law struggled with dyslexia, though he didn’t have a very supportive family so he didn’t even get diagnosed until he was an adult.
They think my nephew is showing early signs of it too, but hopefully his experience will be closer to yours since he’ll get support early on.
Auditory processing disorder is such a weird one. In a lot of contexts I actually like it, it’s like having earmuffs without wearing anything. I just wish I could turn it on and off intentionally. Sometimes I need it because the unfiltered background noise is too much but it won’t turn on. Sometimes I’m trying to take in audio and don’t realize it’s turned on and I missed a bunch.
I’ve also realized that I actually read lips a lot to compensate for background noise, so I’ve been trying to hone that skill more intentionally. Another thing that’s maybe a benefit of the disorder.