There is a movement afoot to keep the distraction of cell phones out of classrooms, and it is rare these days of division. People and politicians on both sides are lining up to take action on a shared goal. Make Cell phone use in the classroom a thing of the past.
Last year, Florida passed a law requiring public schools to prohibit students from using personal wireless devices, including smartphones and earbuds, during class time. Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, the nation’s eighth-largest school system, went even further, banning students from using their phones during the entire school day.
The Florida measure also requires school districts to block student access to social media platforms on school Wi-Fi and specifically prohibits TikTok on school-issued devices. It includes exceptions permitting cellphone use for educational activities “when expressly directed” by a teacher.
Which states are next?
Several states have followed Florida, passing laws or adopting new rules this year that, with limited exceptions, ban student cellphone use either during class or throughout the entire school day. These include Indiana, Louisiana and South Carolina where the new school year is already underway.
Other states have passed new policy or funding measures to help schools rein in student cellphone use.
Pennsylvania, Virgina, California, and New York are all in, in some cases, with Executive orders asking agencies to work out details or where governors have asked their legislators to work on the problem. New Hampshire does not, as far as I can tell, have any rules or laws in statute that prohibit cell phone use during class time. The State Department of Education announced an initiative back in May called Stop Scrolling, Start Something, which … drumroll … has a webpage you have to scroll down to see the resources.
NHED’s Stop Scrolling, Start Something initiative urges teens to think about how much time they spend on their phones, while also encouraging them to take a break and start something more productive. Our landing page at stopscrolling.nh.gov provides dozens of alternative activities for teens and preteens to consider, including visiting a library, going on a hike, joining a friend at the local skate park, having a picnic with the family, starting a garden and more.
Is it better than nothing? I don’t know, but cell phones are undoubtedly a distraction, and I can’t say I wouldn’t be paying more attention to it than classroom instruction, but part of me wonders if this movement is not, itself, a distraction. Public education costs are out of control, and the product of that investment is in steady decline. And it’s a lot easier to suggest that the problem isn’t the system when it most certainly is. Schools waste resources on unproductive staff and invest in curricula that ignore what they were established to do in the first place. While getting them to focus in a culture that frowns on more traditional forms of discipline is a step in the proper direction, having them focused on cultural or social justice affectations isn’t going to raise their math and reading scores.
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