Schools must put phones in pouches -- not just students backpacks -- from bell to bell, says the Phone-Free Schools Movement, reports Elizabeth Heubeck in Education Week. In short, the parent-founded group believes in no phones, no way, all day.
The parent founders have partnered with Fairplay to push for total cellphone bans at K-12 schools. Their free online tool kit suggests effective policies.
"During the school day, students’ phones and other personal electronic devices such as smartwatches, Airpods, etc., must be locked away," says founder Kimberly Whitman. If phones are in a pocket or backpack, "students can’t resist the urge" to check for updates.
With administrators' support, "all teachers must enforce the policy, or it breaks down and is ineffective," she adds. "Finally, consequences to policy breaches must include removal of the student’s phone."
Teens can adjust to a phone-free school day, reports Esme Fox on Bloomberg News. Once they get used to it, they may even prefer face-to-face communications.
At KIPP NYC College Prep high school, some students thanked Principal Monica Samuels for the ban, saying it made it easier for them to focus, she told Fox. AP test scores and grades went up. So did attendance at after-school activities and sporting events.
At Newburgh Free Academy, also in New York, "the lunchroom got a lot noisier as the kids switched to playing card games instead of watching TikTok videos," writes Fox. Students are paying attention in math, a teacher told her.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul intends to propose a statewide ban in schools in January, following the lead of other states.
"About 70% of high school teachers and one-third of middle school teachers say that students being distracted by cellphones is a major problem in their classrooms, according to the Pew Research Center," Heubeck writes.
"A predominantly virtual childhood is a childhood squandered," writes Rikki Schlott, who got her first iPhone at age 10, then moved on to Instagram, Tumblr and Snapchat.
"Every second spent in the online world is a second lost in the real world. It’s a true zero-sum game."
Freethink profiles nine "dumbphones" (or "wisephones") for people who want to break their digital addiction, while still retaining a few useful features.
I saw a photo of a non-US classroom. All the student looking with rapt attention at the teacher as he stood next to a table at the front of the classroom. On the table top was cell phones neatly lined up. Perhaps in the same sequence as the student seating. The teacher held not a pointer, but a hammer.