This School Year, Get Screens Out of the Classroom

Smartphones in class are a problem. But so are the screens that are replacing books and other learning tools.

Photo by Compare Fibre on Unsplash

It’s September, which means it’s back-to-school time for most of America’s kids (yes, I know some started in August too). And this school year, parents, teachers, administrators, and lawmakers alike should take a tougher stance on screens and smartphones.

There’s no good reason to allow students to have their phones in class. More schools, districts, and states should make and enforce rules banning them. And more parents should take note of how these devices are shaping their kids’ lives, often not for the better – and should parent accordingly, even though it’s hard.

I’m very far from a smartphone opponent (I’ve written many newsletters on my own iPhone). But the data, and anecdata, is pretty clear: Phones in class are much more distracting than they are helpful. They impede social development and connection. They give parents a tether to their children, but one that may get in the way of independence and does little for personal safety. They offer new spaces for bullying and harassment, which can be all the more vicious online, where a young person doesn’t have to see the face or reaction of the person they’re mistreating. They can make girls especially vulnerable not just to the depression and anxiety that do seem to come along with social media use, but to victimization – revenge porn, but also AI apps that take normal photos and turn them into pornographic ones. They may hinder important skill-building, from motor skills in younger kids to memory and problem-solving in older ones.

Obviously banning phones in class won’t fix all of these problems, given that smartphones are so ubiquitous outside of class, and screens remain troublingly commonplace in the classroom. Part of that is solvable with policy: Get screens out of the classroom, aside from designated computer and tech-learning times. And part of it is solvable with parenting: Reduce screen time at home, keep kids off of social media until they’re at an appropriate (pretty advanced) age, and try to cut the constantly-in-touch tech tether.

A lot of schools are trying to ban phones in the classroom, and for good reason. Teachers report that students are distracted – they’re texting in class or using social media instead of paying attention – and years of distracted learning seems primed to mean shorter attention spans, less retention of information, and generally poorer cognitive performance. This is common sense, and I think any adult who is honest with themselves can see this in their own life and work. Are you better at working, reading, learning, or spending time with a loved one when your phone is buzzing next to you or even when you just have it in your hand? When I go out to dinner with my husband or friends, the norm is to keep our phones off the table and in our bags – even if we aren’t actively on our phones, the very presence of the phone on the table is a pull on our attention. It also means that if the phone does buzz, we are immediately drawn away from the conversation and to the device, and it can be challenging to get back in – not to mention rude to our dinner companions. And we’re adults with fully-developed frontal cortexes, not teens or tweens (I can’t believe anyone gives their pre-teen a smartphone, but that’s a topic for a different day).

The evidence on phones and generally mental well-being is contested, but the evidence on phones and distraction seems pretty settled: Smartphones are distracting! Anyone who has one, I suspect, doesn’t need a study to tell them that, but nevertheless, studies abound.

This is especially problematic for kids who already have trouble focusing, and for kids who don’t have the kind of out-of-school resources that can help them catch up on what they’ve missed.

In so many ways, phones in the classroom are an inequality issue.