At David H. Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri, there is a rule that requires students to keep their cellphones out of sight during class. In reality, the teachers who are supposed to enforce the rule are unable to cope with teenagers’ “almost compulsive” need to be on their phones all the time, says science teacher Noelle Gilzow.
Gilzow confiscates the perpetrators’ devices and throws them into a basket on her desk, which she calls “telephone prison.” But she knows that she is fighting a losing battle.
“I can’t compete with Netflix,” she said.
More than three-quarters of public schools in the United States prohibit non-academic apply of cell phones, according to a report starting in the 2021-2022 school year. But only 43% of public high schools have such a rule. And at many of them, like Hickman High, the so-called bans are weakly enforced or not enforced at all.
Last year, Florida was the first state to require that all public schools to ban students from using their cell phones during class. Now governors and lawmakers in at least a half-dozen other states are urging their schools to follow suit – through persuasion or legislation.
I can’t compete with Netflix.
– Noelle Gilzow, science teacher at David H. Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri
Connecticut’s Democratic governor, Ned Lamont, praised schools in his state that have restricted cell phone apply, and he has Legislation introduced This would instruct the state education agency to adopt a model policy.
“Social media is often antisocial, and too much smartphone use makes you stupid,” Lamont said in his State of the Union address this year.
In Utah, Republican Governor Spencer Cox was in January sent a letter to the school administration across the state where students are asked to take their cell phones out of class.
“Keeping cell phones in backpacks or lockers during class allows students to give their undivided attention to the lesson, fully participate in discussions, and build relationships with their peers,” Cox wrote in an opinion piece. published in the Deseret News“Our students deserve every advantage and removing cell phones from class time is a proven way we can help our children succeed.”
Cox and other supporters of such measures cite studies that show that even the presence of a mobile phone is a distraction, and they argue that removing them from classrooms will raise academic performance, Reduce bullying and improve Mental health of students.
Not surprisingly, many students are reluctant to give up their cell phones. But much of the resistance to cell phone-free classrooms comes from parents who want to stay connected with their children throughout the day, especially in the event of an emergency.
“I like that she always has it with her. I want to keep an eye on her 24/7. I want to know where she is at all times,” says Elisabeth Rice of Portland, Oregon, who has a 14-year-old daughter. “When she leaves school, she doesn’t leave her phone behind, does she?”
Oregon leaves it up to school districts to set cellphone policies. At the high school Rice’s daughter attends, cellphones in class are “silent and away” but do not require the device to be placed in a cubby or signal-proof bag, as other schools require.
“We’ve all seen how schools handle emergencies,” Rice said. “I want to communicate directly with my child and see what the safest option is.”
Avoid distractions
For Indiana Republican Senator Jeff Raatz, one of the main supporters of the proposed ban in his state, the argument for banning cell phones from the classroom can be reduced to one word: distraction.
He was speaking about civics at a Henry County high school last fall, he recalled in an interview, when he noticed that the students were unusually attentive. It took him a while to understand why.
“It took me weeks to realize that there wasn’t a single cell phone. I thought, ‘Why doesn’t anyone look at their phone?'”
Without phones, he said, “you pay attention instead of texting your friend. We are struggling as a nation to achieve educational outcomes. One way [to help] is to avoid distractions.”
Oklahoma Republican Senator Adam Pugh came to the same conclusion after recently speaking to several classes at a high school in a suburb of Oklahoma City. “In every single class,” he recalls, “half the kids were on their phones the whole time. I can’t imagine ever having a guest lecturer during my time in school and not being able to focus.”
Be The invoice would require local public school districts to develop policies prohibiting students from carrying cell phones on school grounds. It is still pending a vote in the Senate.
A Survey 2019 of college students in 37 states (plus Alberta, Canada) supports the claim that digital devices distract students: On average, respondents spent 19.4% of class time using digital devices for non-classroom purposes.
Barney McCoy, a professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and author of the study, said it’s not surprising that students have a demanding time resisting their devices in class because they’re so used to constantly looking at them outside of the classroom.
“When we’re standing in line at the grocery store, we pull out a smartphone,” McCoy said. “If you’re in the middle of a conversation and a device beeps, chimes or rings, you look at it.”
Some research suggests that banning mobile phones in the classroom can have significant effects. Norwegian study A study published earlier this year examined the impact of cell phone bans on middle school students and found that girls’ grades and mental health improved significantly and that bullying decreased among both girls and boys. The impact was greatest among girls from lower-income families.
Too comprehensive?
“If you look at social media, if you look at what kids are doing, you see that a lot of the bullying is happening on cell phone videos,” says Adam Thomas, a Republican from Kansas, chairman of the House Education Committee and father of five.
But after Thomas’ committee held a hearing on the bill, he decided that counties, not the state, should decide what cell phone policy was best for them.
Indiana State Representative Ryan Dvorak, one of eight lawmakers who opposed the ban in his state, came to a similar conclusion.
“There isn’t a school in the state of Indiana that doesn’t already have its own policy on cell phone use,” said Dvorak, a Democrat and father of three school-age children. “Teachers deal with this on a daily basis. In every classroom, the teacher handles it differently. I don’t like the legislature getting involved in the minutiae of the classroom.”
“Everyone understands that children have problems with being sucked into devices. But creating an absolute law that says this can never happen is counterproductive.”
Roni Cohen-Sandler, clinical psychologist and author of “Everything except my phone, mom!,” a book for parents on how to apply electronic devices, agreed that nationwide bans for students of all ages make no sense.
“Technology is part of our children’s lives,” she said in an interview. “It’s important to help them judge when technology is appropriate and when it is not.”
Cohen-Sandler said cell phones have no place in elementary schools and are “highly unlikely” to serve a useful function in middle school classrooms. She also said students who text their parents too frequently don’t develop the ability to manage their own emotions. “It undermines a lot of the development that’s taking place and hinders kids’ ability to be resilient.”
However, high school students should be mature enough to apply phones appropriately and “in the service of learning,” Cohen-Sandler said.
“You can’t infantilize 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds. I hope they have the judgment to use cell phones more responsibly.”
McCoy, the Nebraska professor, said teachers should take responsibility for engaging students. “We need to be more innovative as teachers,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called on a student who was busy on their device and then looked up and said, ‘Can you repeat the question?’ That’s a challenge for me as a teacher.”
But many parents of high school students may remember the cellphone-free days of their youth and believe that phones have no place in the classroom.
“Kids don’t need phones in school – period,” said Vince Moody of Huntsville, Alabama, who has four children, including a ninth-grader. Moody said if he needed to contact any of them, he would simply call the school office and leave a message.
“I don’t know if there are many benefits to having phones in schools other than parents being able to reach their little snowflake at school,” he said.
