Hugh Grant vented frustration over the “posh private schools” his children attend as he pushes to ban laptops and tablets from classrooms.
On Wednesday, the 64-year-old actor joined American social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt and King Charles III’s second cousin, Sophie Winkleman, at London’s Knightsbridge School for an event organized by the group Close Screens, Open Minds.
While speaking during the event, Grant, a father of five, accused schools of fueling children’s addiction to technology and limiting outdoor play.
The “Bridget Jones’ Diary” star described himself as “another angry parent fighting the eternal, exhausting and depressive battle with children who only want to be on a screen.”
HUGH GRANT, 64, ADMITS TO CHALLENGES OF BEING AN OLDER DAD, JOKES ABOUT ‘UNBEARABLE’ PLAYTIME
Grant also blasted school officials at “ridiculous posh private schools” for their “pathetic” rules he claimed were keeping children indoors.
“They’re the ones saying they’re not going to play outside today because it’s raining, or they can’t go on the climbing frame because it’s windy,” the actor said, according to a story published by the Telegraph Wednesday.
“It’s pathetic,” Grant continued. “It seems to me that there is space here for a hero school, a set of schools, to break the mold.”
The Golden Globe winner shares John Mungo, 12, and daughters Lulu, 9, and Blue, 7, with wife Anna Eberstein. Grant is also father to daughter Tabitha, 13, and son Felix, 11, whom he shares with his former partner Tinglan Hong.
Grant explained that he decided to speak out after becoming fed up with the schools’ overreliance on technology in the classroom.
“The final straw was when the school started saying, with some smugness, ‘We give every child a Chromebook.’ And they do a lot of lessons on their Chromebook, and they do all their homework on their Chromebook, and you just thought that is the last f—ing thing they need and the last thing we need,” he said.
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Haidt is advocating for phone-free schools in addition to a ban on smartphones for children under the age of 14 and barring students under 16 from using social media during classes.
According to the Guardian, in his 2024 book “The Anxious Generation,” Haidt said smartphones have created an “epidemic of mental illness” in children by “rewiring” the younger generations’ brains, which led to “attention fragmentation.”
Grant said other parents haven’t voiced their concerns about the increasing digital consumption in education due to their fears of “rocking the boat.”
However, he called on other parents to join him in his efforts to fight education technology [EdTech] since he believes attempts to turn to the schools or government for support will be futile.
“Do you lobby the schools, and if you do, what’s the weird, sudden, frozen, sepulchral silence from them on this issue?” he said.
“Do you go to government? My experience, campaigning with the [press ethics campaign] Hacked Off over 12 years, is that’s probably a bad idea,” Grant noted. “I’m very cynical about it now.
“I don’t think politicians ever do anything because it’s the right thing to do, even if it’s the right thing to do to protect children,” he added. “They’ll only do what gets them votes. They only care about their career.
“Therefore, I think the third option on this, which is to go after parents, is the right one. Because I think that once you get a critical mass of parents who are outraged by EdTech, as well as all the other issues, the phones, etc., that is when politicians listen because they’re scared of that.
“That’s also when schools start to listen because they’re scared of people leaving their schools and losing business.”
