Cellphones present an enormous distraction in the classroom. Even when the devices aren鈥檛 actually being used, the mere jolt from cellphone notifications can capture students鈥� attention, taking them up to 20 minutes to refocus, according to a recent from the United Nations. In response, an increasing number of schools and districts in the United States are tightening cellphone restrictions.
In 2015, 66 percent of U.S. schools had bans on the books. By 2020, the percentage of schools with cellphone bans had jumped to 77 percent, according to the . Some states are making it easier for schools to implement cellphone bans, as California and Tennessee recently passed laws that allow schools to restrict cellphone use.
Policies restricting or altogether banning cellphone use in classrooms would be expected to elicit favorable responses from teachers and principals.
You would not expect a similar response from students. But educators are seeing a good number of students who actually welcome those restrictions, too.
鈥業 like it because it helps me connect more with my friends, and it limits distractions鈥�
Lake Forest High school, the sole school in the Lake Forest Community High School District 115 in Illinois, recently formed a student focus group to get feedback and offer recommendations on ways to support the school鈥檚 pre-existing cellphone policy, which restricts use of the devices to outside of classrooms.
鈥淚 have had multiple students come up to me and say, 鈥楾hank you,鈥欌�� said Matthew Montgomery, district superintendent, referring to the school鈥檚 renewed emphasis this year on a unified and well-publicized effort to support the cellphone policy.
He acknowledged that even his daughter, a student at the high school with whom he normally avoids discussing school policies and procedures, expressed her appreciation. 鈥淪he is relieved,鈥� said Montgomery, adding that his daughter shared with him how distracting she found cellphones in the classroom at a previous school she attended.
Others report similar experiences. 鈥淪tudents鈥� responses have been positive. They鈥檙e saying 鈥榯hank you,鈥欌�� said Heather Perry, superintendent of schools in Maine鈥檚 Gorham School District, where students are required to place their cellphones in 鈥減hone hotels"鈥攂asically plastic sleeves hanging on classroom walls鈥攄uring class periods.
Teachers are reporting similar findings. One month after the implementation of a new policy banning cellphones from use in classrooms at Breck, a private school in Golden Valley, Minn., high school English teacher Emily Brisse, sharing her experience in an essay, asked her students to share their reflections on it. The responses include these two: 鈥淚 like it because it helps me connect more with my friends, and it limits distractions鈥� and 鈥渋t鈥檚 helped me not be as reliant on it.鈥�
Cellphone restrictions help relieve students from social pressures
School policies that restrict cellphone use can provide the 鈥渙ut鈥� that many adolescents and teens need to resist the temptation to use their devices constantly, said Dan Florell, an assistant psychology professor at Eastern Kentucky University and a school psychologist. He likens cellphone policies to his own experiences as a teen, when he would lean on his mother鈥檚 rules when faced with a situation he knew was potentially risky, such as attending an unsupervised party.
鈥淪he was the 鈥榦ut,鈥欌�� said Florell, who acknowledged that he, like other teens, might complain about his mother鈥檚 curfew to his friends while actually being relieved that he wasn鈥檛 burdened by making a tough decision. A classroom cellphone ban can work similarly.
鈥淎dolescence is a time to figure out where you are, socially. You don鈥檛 want to be left behind,鈥� Florell said. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e not online, you feel like you鈥檙e going to miss out; it鈥檚 almost paralyzing to teens. But now, [with cellphone bans], they know that everybody is going to be missing out.鈥�
