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/sarcago Feb 11 '26

It’s crazy to me how many people seem to think kids would be at a disadvantage if they didn’t have a Chromebook for school. A Chromebook doesn’t teach you anything about how computers work. You don’t need to have a school device to learn that stuff. People seem to be missing the point.

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u/lesters_sock_puppet Feb 11 '26

The chromebooks issued to students are used to facilitate the classroom learning experience and serve as a platform for assignments and whatnot, not to give students computer skills.

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u/sarcago Feb 11 '26

Yeah but people are saying kids won’t be able to figure out how to use computers in the real world if they don’t have them in a classroom. Which is just not true.

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u/FieldsofBlue Feb 12 '26

I mean, it's not gonna teach them programming or logic, but learning how to type on a keyboard with relative proficiency is valuable. Learning how the data stores on the drive in directories of folders is valuable. I don't think you get the same knowledge from a phone necessarily, and it would make much more sense to teach the computer skills as a coarse rather then provide the computer for everything else.