Usha Vance, Bobby Mukkamala Pitch For Books Over Phones

India-West News Desk

CANTON, GA — Both educators and health leaders are stepping up calls for children to spend less time on screens. At Cherokee Classical Academy, Second Lady Usha Vance urged students to put down their phones and pick up books, framing reading as a way to “counteract” the hours children spend on electronic devices. Meanwhile, Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, president of the American Medical Association, told Fox News Digital that parents should actively monitor screen habits because “too much screen time for young people can interfere with healthy sleep, increase risks for anxiety and depression, and reduce physical activity.”

The push for “low-tech learning environments” is gaining momentum as more schools and states adopt restrictions.

For Vance, the issue is personal. She explained to Fox that her middle child’s eagerness to learn to read “took me down a rabbit hole of trying to understand how one teaches reading.” That journey led to an “eye-opening” understanding of U.S. literacy challenges and inspired her 2025 Summer Reading Challenge.

Encouraging students to embrace tougher texts, she added, “It’s wonderful to pick up things that are just a little harder and that require you to focus just a bit more.”