I left school in the UK about 2 years after the release of the first iPhone. We were always banned from using phones even during breaks. If they were seen they were confiscated.
I can only imagine how distracting phones are today for kids in school, especially with the rise of extremely addictive apps like TikTok.
I think banning them in schools is a good thing and I’m not surprised schools are seeing improvements in behaviour without them.
That they are even allowed in the first place is startling and puts into question what schools are even for. Clearly those who draft policies where phones are allowed have no interest in your education.
To me this sort of bans always feel like an easy way out. Why educate good phone use when you can just impose any rules you want?
While small things like this create a big contrast between "school" and the "real world". When kids are at home doing homework they will have access to phones. They live in a world where every adult always has a phone in their hand. Why not teach them good and healthy ways of using tools and technology?
One good and healthy way of using technology is to set it aside when it's not necessary and when it risks being an obstacle to accomplishing your goals. For instance, in the "real world", you should not be using your phone while driving a car, or operating a table saw, or in a movie theater, or while having an intimate dinner. "Put it on mute and put it away" is an extremely useful skill. Furthermore, children generally have less developed impulse control than adults. It's easier for them to deal with a single coarse requirement ("no phones") rather than a set of nuanced ones.
Also, to be frank, schools need to take the easy way out sometimes. They have part-time, limited custody of children across the whole spectrum of development. Even if some large subset of kids would take well to a "digital wellbeing" curriculum, they will always also have to deal with the subset of kids who could not care less.
> When kids are at home doing homework they will have access to phones. They live in a world where every adult always has a phone in their hand. Why not teach them good and healthy ways of using tools and technology?
Some things are still the job of the parents, not the teachers.
See! You lack of sword education is clearly showing. sports foils and epees, (by far the most common swords used by kids who fence) are not at all capable of killing anyone, at least no more than a common stick. If you try to thrust it through someone you’ll just break the blade. At best they can be used to poke an eye out, or create bad bruises. But the same is true if someone throwing their phone at another kid.
Personally i used an internet content filter which also enforced time limits.
the kids had a limited data plan and used the house internet. once it was off they could burn up their data for the month, but that was a choice they made.
as they became older and more mature the rules were lowered. Longer internet times, less content restrictions.
People thought i was weird at the time, but now the kids are adults they said they would do something similar to their kids as it was what they needed, not what they wanted at the time.
In Australia my experience is that private schools usually have a phones in locker rule (but you’d get away with it in your pocket) and public schools mostly allow phones.
Pulling out a phone in class in the schools I was in would result in it being taken where you could collect at the end of the day.
> “We talk about Stanford behavioral scientists hired by Big Tech to design the little dopamine slot machines we carry around,” Hertz said. “I tell them about my own struggles with my phone, I remind them that their eyeballs are dollar signs, and tell them it’s not their fault that they can’t stop looking at these things.”
This is interesting - I wonder who she was talking about in particular, perhaps someone from BJ Fogg's Behavior Design Lab (formerly Persuasive Technology Lab?) Though it appears that the lab, and its graduates, are generally oriented toward more positive outcomes.
Fun fact: Good grades during high school is directly positively correlated with future success and occurrence of fights.
Good luck convincing teenagers to get good grades.
Are there parental controls on Apple Watch and iPhone that make it easy for a parent to limit the kid to just messaging or calling the parents during school hours? I wouldn't even want my kid to see notifications from others, since the curiosity would be distracting.
I can only imagine how distracting phones are today for kids in school, especially with the rise of extremely addictive apps like TikTok.
I think banning them in schools is a good thing and I’m not surprised schools are seeing improvements in behaviour without them.