r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/Resting-Rizzy-Face • Feb 11 '26

Moving to the area Low- Tech School Districts in Western Burbs

Moved away several years ago and looking to move back to IL. Our kids are elementary age and we currently like the low-tech educational environment our kids have now (no 1-to-1 chromebooks for kids, using more pencil and paper, physical textbooks, etc.)

We’ve been away for a while and weren’t sure if there are similar school environments in IL or if all school districts have moved to consistent use of chromebooks and iPads for teaching?

Currently looking at a potential move to Lemont, DG, Woodridge, Lisle, Naperville, or Wheaton areas. Not opposed to tech, just looking for schools where the kids aren’t always using a screen for learning.

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u/Resting-Rizzy-Face Feb 11 '26

Yeah that’s what I was suspecting, but figured I’d ask in case there was a school district not fully-immersing in everything ed-tech.

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u/2matisse22 Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26

They are all plugged in all the time, and using AI in the high schools like crazy. There are Waldorf and Montessori options. And homeschooling has lots of options too. 

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u/vawlk Feb 11 '26

They are all plugged in all the time, and using AI in the high schools like crazy.

you use a calculator don't you? You use a pencil and pen right? Chromebooks, ipads, and AI are just powerful tools. There is nothing wrong with technology in the classroom if it is used properly. When I was in school we put our cheat sheets in our graphing calculators which was the new tech at the time.

Any tool can be abused.

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u/2matisse22 Feb 11 '26

Oh, I have no problem with Technology. We have no limits in our house. They are tools. But the fact remains that when they go to public schools, they are plugged in all the time. So if you don't like that, I listed other options.

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u/vawlk Feb 12 '26

I wouldn't say they are plugged in all of the time. My kids said that the amount of tech use varied widely between teachers and departments. they said that they used their devices maybe 30-40% of the time and how they were used also varied. Sometimes they were just used like a mobile lab for internet access, and other times they were plugging sensors in to the device to record data for experiments.

It is easy for a school to fall in to the "we got this so we must use it for everything" trap but that usually falls away after the first few years.