A New Approach to Student Engagement
This morning we’re looking into the growing no phone movement in schools. Up to 95% of teens own a cell phone, and kids can receive about 500 notifications a day, many of them during school hours. This understandably makes it hard for them to concentrate. Meg Oliver spoke to a social psychologist who calls this problem worse than vaping, and Meg takes us inside a school that decided to do something about it.
Locking Up Phones: Newberg Free Academy’s Initiative
All for students at Newberg Free Academy in New York. The first assignment of the day: locking their phones in pouches made by the company Yonder for 7 hours, including lunch. It was a bit of a shock for some students when the policy was introduced. Four years ago, I was ready to start a petition to bring it to the principal: like, stop it real fast. But no one signed 17-year-old Tyson Hill’s petition, and now he loves attending a phone-free school.
The Benefits of a Phone-Free Environment
Why is this approach better? I mean, coming from a school where it was banned but it wasn’t implemented, I was still using my phone. I was still on my phone. Here, students walk with their heads up in the hall, socialize, and laugh in the lunchroom. They focus on what teachers like Dennis Maher are saying. That’s the beauty of this; it’s a game changer.
The Impact of Technology on Mental Health
Yeah, it’s night and day. I saw kids’ faces again. According to the CDC, in the 10 years leading up to the pandemic, feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness, as well as suicidal thoughts and behaviors, increased by about 40%. While test scores, especially in math for grades four and eight, saw the biggest decline on record. While there’s debate on whether technology, including phones, deserves much of the blame for these trends, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt says it’s the only explanation.
A Historical Perspective on Phone Usage
So it wasn’t the pandemic that did this to us. This was all starting in the early 2010s, and the only explanation anyone can offer for why this happened all over the world is the phones. Haidt is the author of “The Coddling of the American Mind” and started researching Gen Z in 2015 when cases of anxiety and depression started to rise. He says in 2010, most teenagers had flip phones they used for texting—a tool to help them connect in person. But between 2010 and 2015, smartphones changed the landscape, inundating people with notifications, group chats, and social media.
The Learning Environment: Smartphones as Distractions
Smartphones are basically Kryptonite for learning. When children have a phone in their pocket, and most schools say you have to keep your phone in your pocket, you can’t use it during class, which is like saying in a drug detox clinic you can keep your heroin in your pocket; just don’t shoot up. If kids have access to a phone, they will text, they will check their social media, and they will not pay attention to the teacher or to each other in person.
The Success of Yonder Pouches
Back at Newberg Free Academy, students lock up their phones and leave them in the classroom all day. The technology isn’t new, but the company Yonder estimates they saw a 150% increase in schools using them in 2023, with more than 2,000 schools participating. It’s amazing to see kids come to school and not have to worry about that phone going off and a video being posted of them fighting in the bathroom or them being bullied by someone else on social media.
Addressing Safety Concerns
Assistant principal Ebony Clark says the pushback to remove phones was minimal, including concerns over safety. There’s an emergency—an active shooter—that phone going off makes them a target. Yonder pouches cost between $25 and $30 per student. Haidt says while they aren’t foolproof, it’s an easy solution for a generation in the midst of a mental health crisis.
Learning from Experience
This was a disastrous experiment that we began in the early 2010s. We didn’t know any better then; we know better now. Safety is an understandable concern, but we can look to a compelling example: a middle school in Newtown, Connecticut—the town where the devastating shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary took place in 2012—has banned phones during the entire school day. A powerful statement for the country.
A Global Trend
You know, my Angela always says when you know better, you do better, and it seems the research backs up that this works. Banning the phones, and more countries are doing so. The UK just approved a ban following France, Italy, and Portugal.
The Positive Impact on Student Well-Being
Yeah, now the kids are like, stop talking. So I have a house full of teenagers, so when it comes to feeling ostracized, the drama, the gossip, not feeling like you’re included or measuring up, or just overall FOMO, the common denominator is always the phone. It always goes back to that phone in their hands. So I love this, and it does make them more attentive and more aware and more alert. What a nice break for seven hours, right? To not have to be glued to your phone.
Balancing Connectivity and Attention
And you said you sort of experienced it yourself when you texted your kids in the middle of the school day, and they texted right back. You’re like, wait a second, aren’t you supposed to be studying? Yeah, exactly. So what’s the downside to them not having the phones during the day? Maybe emergency situations and wanting to contact your kids if you have a medical condition. You can still—there are those kind of instances—but you just go to the office. We did it, right?
Reflecting on Adult Behavior
And let’s be honest, as adults, we are on our phones a little bit too much. I said the same. I said we’re asking children to model better behavior than we have to be better. That’s for Meg. Thank you.