Just Another Cell Phone Article

Just Another Cell Phone Article

More than 77% of American schools have placed a ban on personal cell phone usage during school hours, including Exeter High School. This means that even if they could possibly be used for educational purposes, they must not be seen in the classroom unless specifically given permission by the teacher in charge. While there are many reasons that explain the logic behind this recent change, but there are also many that leave its reasoning to be debated. In short, the neoteric phone policy instated at EHS should be reconsidered and removed.

The first piece of evidence to support this is that Life360, a trusted location-tracking app among parents, says that students should be allowed to have a phone in class for things such as emergencies- spanning from large emergencies to small, every-day problems that need an instant response. The National Center for Education Statistics collected that in 2016, around 80% of schools claim to provide telephones in classrooms. What about the other 20%? In the case of an emergency, such as an active shooter or a fire, what will happen if a student needs to call a parent? Keep in mind that in 2016, there were approximately 132,853 schools in America. Roughly 20% of that is 26,571. That means that 27,000 schools didn't provide phones for their classrooms. Another thing to think about is that in the case of an emergency, not everyone would be able to use the phone at once, which would cause chaos and would inevitably prove ineffective as not every student would be able to get in contact with a loved one. Now, that being said, it would be reasonable that in said case of an emergency, the school would permit students to go retrieve their phones from caddies. But this is similar to all students in a classroom using one class phone, it would cause chaos, which, in the case of an active shooter situation, would be the least ideal thing to happen.

Life360 also called keeping phones on students an opportunity to learn about digital responsibility. The Harvard Gazette wrote that during the pandemic “At home, many young people were free to choose how and when to use their phones during learning hours. Now, they face a school environment seeking to take away their main source of connection.” Victor Pereira, a lecturer on education and co-chair of the Teaching and Teaching Leadership Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education said, “Returning back to in-person, I think it was hard to break the habit.” 

Another point is that Parents from across the country are sharing their doubts about phone bans in around 77% of American schools as they can’t confirm their child’s location or safety. Such as Pamela Paul, a New York Times columnist says that as a parent herself, not knowing exactly where her children are is the scariest part about the phone bans. And similarly, if you weren’t aware, there was a recent bomb threat to the middle school, CMS. The phone policy at the middle school is to have phones in lockers, not even a caddy, like here. My own mom said that “even though the threat turned out to be not true, it still scared me that if something happened Will [my brother, 8th grade] wouldn’t be able to reach out for help.”

This being said, The Pew Research Center claims that 95% of kids have access to a cell phone and that even if that phone is put away, it doesn’t mean it’s not a distraction. Now, this may mean that phones are distracting for students, but the main intention of this statistic is to help prove that though phones can cause distractions among students, removing them from the students’ hands doesn’t eliminate the problem.

Finally, Harvard experts say that more teachers today should learn to work with technology and not against it. Victor Pereira, whom I mentioned earlier, suggests methods that include more free-rein ethics and using technology to your advantage as a teacher instead of fighting against it, saying, “Two things I try to share with my new teachers are, one, why is that student on the phone? What’s triggering getting on your cell phone versus jumping into our class discussion, or whatever it may be?... Design better learning activities, design learning activities where you consider how all of your students might want to engage and what their interests are.”

The plan to enact this change could go as follows: Survey students about the plan, survey teachers about the plan, present results and findings to Mr. Monahan and the administrative team, and after all data passing through previous steps, the results and findings will be shared with the superintendent.

In summation, this plan is to remove the phone ban at Exeter High School and allow students to have phones on their person. To clarify, this argument is not made to allow students to use their phones in class or to help use phones to serve as a distraction in classrooms. It is solely to allow for easy access to loved ones in case of an emergency, learn digital responsibility, put parents at ease, find better ways to eliminate distractions, and permit for teachers to use technology to their advantage.

Finally, as a compliment to this change, it is recommended that instead of teachers and administration trying to restrict phone usage, they should instead find activities that encourage students to participate in class rather than go on their phones. This being said, it cannot solely be the teacher’s responsibility to make sure students are not distracted in class, but this also must apply when thinking about enforcing the phone ban.