Practical Theory

The context for this post is that we changed our cell phone policy this year. We’ve gotten cell phone storage devices for every classroom, and kids are expected to store their phones at the start of every class. To wit:

At SLA, we are proud to be a 21st century school and we promote responsible and thoughtful use of personal electronic devices. However, cell phones and other items should not interfere with the learning process.

Therefore, cell phones will not be permitted to be out in class. We want kids to be able to focus in class, and more and more, schools all over the country are seeing that when students have their cell phones on them during class, it is just that much harder for them to focus.

Therefore, all students will store their phones at the start of each class in the designated station. They may retrieve their phones only with teacher permission.

Students who disrespect the policy may have their phones stored with their advisor or the office for longer periods of time. Repeat issues may result in the family being called in for a conference.

As a result of this practice, students will not be available for direct contact during class time. If you have a family emergency that requires immediate attention, please call the school office at (215-400-7830)

Family Tip: Do a phone use check with your child. Take a look at your phone use totals for the last 24 hours, and the last week. When are they using their phone, and for what purpose? Talk about what boundaries they could set as an individual, or what you could set as a family.

On some level, it’s not a massive change, because we never wanted our kids scrolling TikTok in class, and we’ve always been pretty clear about cell phones not getting in the way of learning. On another level, it is a big change, because we are being way more intentional about where cell phones go during class, our school-wide expectations, and the practice of having students store their phones at the start of class is different. And the fact that we, as a school that has long embraced the intentional use of technology, made this change has garnered a lot of attention.

So we were on Vox Media a few weeks ago talking about our cell phone policy. The whole episode is very much worth a listen, and what I’m most impressed by is how thoughtful our students are about our new cell phone policy.

At the 18 minute mark, Governor Kathy Hochul of New York is interviewed, because she is advocating for a state-wide ban, and while on a personal level, it’s not awesome to hear the Governor of New York dismiss your school policy, I can’t help but think that she’s wrong.

This past week I was on a panel discussion about modern education with the CEO of Digital Promise, Jean-Claude Brizard. He talked about how state and federal policy is a blunt instrument that isn’t very good at nuance, and this is a perfect example of that. On one level, I can’t imagine a state legislature thinking that banning cell phones is a useful or thoughtful use of their time. But even more than that, it’s using a bazooka instead of a fly-swatter. When something is done at the state policy level, there’s rarely space for nuance.

Let’s start with this — last week, I was doing one of my walk-arounds, and here’s what I saw as I went into classrooms – first, let’s say this – it’s a lot easier for kids to focus when their cell phones are in a pouch at the front of the room than when it’s in their pocket, vibrating with the latest notification. That’s pretty much incontrovertible at this point, and it aligns with what the kids were saying on the podcast. But then, I also saw Matt Kay’s English class where kids were engaged in small group discussions, and one member of each group had retrieved their cell phones and were recording the discussion to be uploaded to Canvas so Matt could listen in on the conversations later.

In short, I often see teachers using their thoughtful judgement about when the cell phones are still useful in the classroom. Would that be allowed if cell phones were banned under state law? Would I have to write up teachers who asked kids to take out their phones for legitimate use? Would they even be able to? And what does enforcement of a state law like that even look like?

Because the thing is, cell phone use is complicated. If cell phones had no use in schools, we’d ban them completely with the full force of state law. We do that. You can’t bring drugs or alcohol in school. You can’t bring weapons into school. All those things are banned because there is no good-faith argument that any of those things have any educational use or value in schools. But cell phones aren’t that. There are use cases where cell phones can be a productive part of a high school student’s education, even while there are very real concerns about how cell phones can also be a profoundly unhelpful distraction from student learning. And then, there’s the very real fact that many of us – kids and adults alike – enjoy using our cell phones when we need a break at lunch. And maybe that’s ok.

That’s why we made the policy decision at the school level. Because it’s complicated. And we don’t know everything yet. We know it was getting harder and harder for kids to ignore the distractions of cell phones when they were in their pockets, and we know that there are still times when teachers want the kids to use their phones academically. We know that our kids work hard in school, we want them to still have agency and choice about how they spend their free time, and fundamentally, by having a nuanced policy, we allow ourselves the right to keep talking with kids about how they use their phones and spend their time – lessons we hope they take with them throughout the rest of their lives.

This is what I think Brizard means by policy being a blunt instrument. At the school or small district level, there’s knowledge of the school environment, and the ability to define rules that makes the most sense for the learning environment. Second, state policy has to be enforced locally, and I have no idea what enforcement looks like with a policy like this? Am I liable as principal if I don’t enforce it? Is a teacher liable if a kid brings a second phone to school (which is happening in schools with school-wide bans?) Are parents responsible if a kid brings a phone to school? And if something is state law, what’s the consequence for breaking the law? Is the state going to assign detention? And for schools that are under-resourced, is the state going to fund staffing the detention? Fund staffing the collection of the phones? Replacing the Yondr pouches when kids break them?

These are real questions that, I imagine, will be left to the schools to figure out. And policy is only as effective as it is enforceable and manageable, otherwise, it’s just political theater. And more than anything else, we don’t need more examples of politicians using schools as political theater.

Now, schools may decide that these uses aren’t worth the effort of asking teachers to be responsible for classroom-level enforcement. I respect that. However, that’s not our decision at SLA. Maybe we’ll change our minds. Maybe we won’t. But the decisions we make will be grounded in who we are as a community, and how we create the best conditions for our teachers to teach and our students to learn.

And if Governor Hochul wants to visit, we’d be happy to talk more with her about why.