Cell Phone Ban

We are now about four weeks into the new school year. That means I have had almost 20 days – 20 classes – to establish procedures and to help students settle into expectations that I have for my classroom. Lots of things they fall right in with, and there’s no push back. They’re excited to be able to eat and drink in class, as long as they clean up after themselves (which is kind of cute – welcome to high school). I haven’t had to get after them to remember binders or books the last couple of weeks, and there haven’t been any surprises in terms of due dates and late assignments.

I love getting to this time of year! Just for this ease of transitions, and knowing that everyone is on the same page.

Except. Except for the freaking cell phones.

As a high school teacher, the cell phone ban is not a new concept. We have been fighting with cell phones for years now, and every admin team that comes in has had a different take on what they want their school to look like, and what they expect teachers to do about cell phones in the classrooms and hallways. With the Government of Saskatchewan implementing their “new” provincial measures, I had to laugh a little at their lofty press release. The Education Minister (at the time) was quoted saying:

“This new policy will allow students to be more engaged with their teachers and focused on learning the skills and knowledge they need to reach their potential.”

Like we weren’t focused on that before? But let me break this down a little.

What I See From My Side

I can – honestly – see both sides of the argument, especially teaching high school. Before the province announced the cell phone ban, I had given up on keeping students completely off of their phones. We had a no phones policy in our high school, but every teacher was dealing with things differently, and it was really on the teacher to police things. And when it came to being the “phone police”, it was, frankly, taking up too much time and effort, and it was a never-ending battle with some of them. Most kids were pretty good about it, but it just became commonplace that you were having to remind students to put them away, focus on class, turn them to silent, do what they are supposed to be doing, etc. The repeat offenders, the kids who were really addicted, we would take the phones away, but even some of them had parents who didn’t know what to do, and basically told us to leave them, and let the kids fail.

So. In that regard, I’m glad we have a provincial ban now that we can cite and use to reinforce the no cell phones policy. We still have to remind them daily to hand the phones over and put them in the phone holder, but it’s a school-wide expectation that everyone is attempting to stick with.

 Pros to the Ban

• micro distractions (from phones) are seriously limited when all students are turning over their cell phones, and focus on what is happening in class is up, though I think saying that student engagement is up can be a bit of a stretch, depending on your group and what they are learning
• it becomes more difficult (in class) for students to just turn to ChatGPT to do their thinking for them
  • I do feel the need to add here that unless an assignment is taking place in class, and only in class, then you aren’t totally going to negate this issue – students just go home and look things up, or let AI be their brains
• Socializing is actually up, because students aren’t just automatically turning to their phones the second they’re done all of their work, and I don’t actually mind it, because they are stretching some very atrophied muscles in attempting to engage in meaningful conversations
• I’m less irritated, because I’m not having to constantly hound kids, and manage their addictive habits

Cons

• if we’re being real, and let’s be, the government has given us a cell phone ban policy, but they haven’t given it any teeth
  • there are no clear consequences (or any consequences) depending on your school, your admin team, and the individual teachers
  • enforcement of this still falls on teachers, and without admin support, we’re more bark than bite
  •  schools are supposed to allow for exemptions, which opens up a whole messy, wriggling can of worms – while I can absolutely understand in some situations, you have a lot of kids who are using it as a work-around
• for Grade 9’s and 10’s, I believe that this is still a legit policy, but when it comes to Grade 11 and Grade 12 students, I think we have to start to consider that these are young adults, and I don’t know that I totally agree with completely removing their phones from them – they need to be exercising some autonomy, and figuring things out for themselves (and this is the perfect time to do so when they still have some guidance)

My Concerns

I have a couple of issues with this policy, and the reasoning behind its implementation. We are living in a digital age, and lots of classes need technology, but don’t necessarily have access to computers all the time. More than once I have asked students to quickly Google something if they don’t know the answer, or definition to a term, or I ask them to access finance calculators on their phones, etc. When they’re turning their phones in, they then have to get up and grab them, which in itself leads to time wasted and distractions, and then what – am I supposed to ask them to return them? Grab your phone for a minute and then put it back? It feels a little too controlling, and adds unnecessary chaos to a room that already tends that way sometimes (helloooo hormonal teenagers).

There is also already an uptick in the number of students who now have two phones – one to “turn in” and one that they keep on them. Or they turn in their phones, but they still have their smart watches. So then it becomes a question of do we ban all technology except for when we sign out laptops, or take them to the labs? Because phones aren’t the only piece of technology some of these kids are packing.

And big picture: are we addressing a symptom (phone distraction) more than some root issues (attention skills, digital habits, the way that the education system is currently being run, etc.)? And why is the government so worried about cell phones, when they can’t be bothered to address digital literacy in new curriculum documents, or they tell English teachers that AI “isn’t on their radar” at this time (while currently renewing curriculum). It’s a good PR move with some people, but we have a lot of other big issues that we could really use their attention on, and we’re not going to get it.

It sometimes feels like there’s just no winning, it doesn’t matter what you do.

I don’t pretend to have all of the answers. I don’t pretend to even have some of them some days. If we’re banning cell phones to jump on the bandwagon (which it sometimes feels like is the motivating factor to some decisions), I think we have bigger fish to fry. And the government has a lot more research to do, and could add a lot more depth to their policies, instead of making a blanket statement and throwing it at divisions to figure out. But then you’d probably have people upset that they were trying to micro-manage, so again – no clear answers!

Anyway, I’ll continue to do what I think works best for my classes, while complying (mostly) with this policy. With most things, I’m not a firm believe in all or nothing, and this definitely falls into the “most things” category. I can see some benefits, and I’ll lean into those, but I’m also a teacher, so of course I’m going to use occasional usage as a very real, very important, teaching/life lesson moment.