NHS' Phone Policy: Is There A Better Way?

UPDATE

This school year, NHS implemented a new policy that requires each student to deposit their phone in a phone hotel during each class and homeroom. As we at The Hilltopper have experienced the time before this policy and are now experiencing the new phone policy, we thought we would share our thoughts on its effectiveness thus far. While we see immense value in increasing focus in school, the current state of the phone ban prevents self-regulation lessons and increases anxiety while ineffectively eliminating distractions.

INCREASING FOCUS VS. TEACHING SELF CONTROL

For some Hilltopper staff members, these phone jails have been an effective way of helping us maintain focus during classes, but they also rob us of the chance to learn how to take responsibility for our own education and make healthy decisions through facing natural consequences. Phones are undoubtedly a distraction to learning, but when that distraction is simply removed, students do not get a chance to practice organizational skills and time management, and they cannot build up a natural resistance to distraction. This prevents them from having the valuable learning experience of not paying attention in class, failing a test, and then working to cement better habits in the future so that it doesn’t happen again. This ability to adapt one’s habits in response to consequences is a skill essential to adults’ lives. Once we are out in the adult world, we must be able to manage our phone addictions, as there will be no phone hotel on the walls of each college classroom or workplace. 

SAFETY CONCERNS

One of the biggest concerns The Hilltopper and our fellow students have about the phone policy is not having access to our phones in the case of an emergency. While the phone hotels prevent some distractions, they also prevent students from contacting their families in emergency situations. Obviously, the chances of an emergency are low, and we all hope it is a problem we never encounter, but in today’s world, school is not always a safe place, so lockdowns, barricades, and natural disasters are valid concerns. If a crisis were to occur, the inability to contact home would be a major issue, which weighs on our minds every time we put our phones in the phone hotels.

REALISTIC IMPACT

While the new NHS phone policy does increase students’ focus, that is not its only impact. We have found that students feel more anxious due to safety concerns, frustrated with the limitation of their personal freedoms, and often, not as focused as teachers believe. Students with MacBooks in particular can still text during class, so the phone hotel really only does so much. Even students with non-Apple laptops still have access to New York Times Games and Dress to Impress. Realistically, the phone hotels only restrict the texting of some students, which causes students to desire their phones even more. 

Moreover, when phones aren’t allowed during class periods, we find that more students spend breaks, passing periods, lunch, and time outside of school silently scrolling on their phones, rather than talking with classmates. In other words, because phone usage is decreased in classrooms, it is increased in the hallway, the cafeteria, in cars, and in homes. While phones were often left in our backpacks during passing periods in the past, now, since we collect them from the hotels at the end of each class, we hold them in every hallway. We find ourselves catching up on what we missed on our phones rather than catching up with our peers. While the phone policy does have a few benefits in terms of concentration during class, it also comes with undeniable detrimental effects. 

CONCLUSION AND OUR PROPOSALS

In conclusion, we see a lot of merit in the phone ban. However, in order to decrease anxiety and reward students who are capable of self moderation while teaching those who are not, we would like to propose a few adjustments. 

First, we believe that homeroom is an excellent place for students to be able to practice regulating their own screen usage. While we understand encouraging the use of phone hotels during Wednesday homerooms, when we are watching presentations or doing the Core Project, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, homeroom should be a time for students to do what will best help them succeed, whether that means taking a mental break on their phones for a few minutes or leaving their phones in their bags and getting ahead on their homework. 

Another alternative solution is to limit the phone hotel to those individuals who prove themselves unable to focus with their phone in class. This policy would put the responsibility for staying focused in class on the students by allowing those who leave their phones in their backpack to keep them there and forcing students who engage with their phones in negative ways to be separated from them. The public humiliation of being forced to use the phone hotel when the majority of one’s classmates do not have to would encourage concentration on schoolwork, instead of phones, in class.

The NHS phone policy is a generalized ban based on clear research that points to phones being a large detriment in the school setting. However, as high school students, it is difficult to practice independence and responsibility with a policy as strict as this. We appreciate the ideals of the phone policy and hope that students and faculty can work together in the future to better the learning environment for all.