For many years, schools around the United States have banned students from using their cellphones on campus, but it’s been difficult to enforce. Even when students know the rules, they find ways to get around those rules, and often, they don’t care about being caught.
Unlike some rules, which can seem arbitrary, the rule against cellphones is justified and should be strictly enforced.
Cell phones on campus are a major distraction
The most obvious reason cellphones should be banned from schools is because they’re a big distraction from learning. Students constantly stare at their phones underneath their desks and behind books instead of paying attention to their teachers. When students miss the teacher’s lessons, they fall behind in the class and end up with low grades. They fail their tests, don’t remember their homework assignments, and miss out on important instructions. For example, where math class is concerned, most lessons are an explanation for how to solve specific math problems, and if a student misses those lessons, they’ll never complete their homework or pass tests.
It would be nice if students would voluntarily follow the rules about not using their phones, but they can’t be trusted to keep their phones in their pocket during class, and only use them on breaks. Even when a student’s phone is on silent, they feel the vibration when a notification comes in, and the temptation to check that notification can be overwhelming. It doesn’t matter if it’s just someone “liking” a photo, social media notifications induce a hit of dopamine, which only serves to reinforce the need to check their phone constantly.
As one school discovered, when cell phones were eliminated, students began playing games at lunch and actually interacted with each other. It was the first time in a while that educators had seen kids acting like kids.
Cellphone usage prevents real connection
Kids who are constantly glued to their smartphones tend to avoid eye contact with others because they’re all just sitting around staring at screens. They also don’t run around and play, or use their imagination to create their own games and activities. Kids who are addicted to their phones tend to live more of their lives online in a virtual cyberworld rather than in the real world with real friends.
This is why some schools have implemented magnetic locking pouches that only open with a device that exists outside of the learning environment. These pouches allow kids to keep their phones nearby as opposed to putting them in a giant locker. This makes sense, especially since they won’t have control over how their phone is handled in a locker, and an administrator could drop and break their device. Some kids choose durable protective cases, but some don’t.
Although the magnetic pouches work well, some students find ways around it, like surrendering an older phone while keeping their real phone in their backpack.
There’s nothing wrong with making friends online, but nothing beats having real friends in person. Unfortunately, some kids spend so much time online that they forget how to make friends in person and they don’t develop deep friendships with the friends they do have in their lives.
Cellphone availability encourages bullying
Bullying in schools has been a big problem since before cellphones existed, but the nature and scope of bullying has changed. Now that cellphones are easily available, students are using their cameras to take video of altercations, and sometimes instigate fights just for the purpose of getting the fight on camera to post to social media. This is a huge problem. However, some schools have noticed that banning cellphones reduces bullying.
Kids don’t need to be in contact with family or bosses during school hours
One of the leading arguments against banning students from possessing their cell phone during school hours is the fact that it hinders communication between the child and parent, and potentially from employers. However, if a parent truly needs to communicate something important to their child, they can call the school. Likewise, employers shouldn’t be bothering their employees while they’re off the clock and in school. Anything that is truly an emergency can be routed through the school’s office. Anything else can wait.
Being able to contact a student wherever they are anytime is not normal and is a relatively new concept. Cell phones make communication convenient, but outside of an emergency, kids should not be reachable during school hours.
Bans have been successful so far
So far, the schools that have banned cell phones during school hours, including breaks, are seeing big improvements in learning and engagement.
Hopefully more schools will follow suit and keep controllable distractions out of the classroom.
