鈥淐ellphones are here to stay. More and more work is being done on these communication devices, as they morph into BlackBerries, hand-held calculators, phone banks, digital cameras, radios, and even televisions.鈥�
So warned education professor Bruce S. Cooper and former superintendent John W. Lee as they weighed the place of cellphones in schools鈥攂ack in 2006.
That was the year that an unevenly enforced 1988 ban on mobile devices in New York City schools sprang back into the public consciousness with a new crackdown. That policy was later dropped in 2015, but it seems everything old is new again. The current New York governor, Kathy Hochul, is now publicly considering a similar statewide ban, as are California Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers in more than half a dozen other states. Several states, including Floridia, Indiana, and Ohio, already passed statewide prohibitions on school cellphone use in the past several years.
Cellphone technology has certainly evolved as predicted over the last few decades (well, mostly; R.I.P. to the now discontinued BlackBerry), but what about the debate over their use in schools?
The popularity of phone bans has yo-yoed in the years since, from a high of 91 percent of public schools in the 2009-10 school year (the first year the National Center for Education Statistics began tracking such data). That number dipped as low as 66 percent in 2015-16 but has since rebounded to , the latest year data are available.
Back in 2006, one fault line was already emerging between educators concerned about cellphone misuse in class and parents concerned about not being able to communicate with their children.
鈥淕iven the potential for abuse, a ban sounds logical,鈥� wrote Cooper and Lee in their 2006 essay. 鈥淵et, in today鈥檚 society, cellphones also serve as modern-day umbilical cords, able to link children with their increasingly busy (and worried) parents and guardians.鈥�
If that sounds familiar, it might be because you read reporting just last month from EdWeek Staff Writer Elizabeth Heubeck documenting 鈥�When Schools Want to Ban Cellphones鈥擝ut Parents Stand in the Way.鈥�
Of course, the debate over cellphones in school has never been as clear-cut as educators vs. parents. Dig deeper into Edweek鈥檚 Opinion advice and you鈥檒l find countless educators taking a pro-cellphone line鈥攁t least when used responsibly.
Middle school administrator Matt Levinson saw a fork in the road ahead of teachers in a 2009 Opinion essay: 鈥淭hey can continue to fight a losing battle and draw harsh lines in the sand, confiscating cellphones or banning their use during school hours. Or, they can seize the teachable moment, and shift their approaches to embrace technology and engage students with these devices.鈥�
The following year, middle school teacher Paul Barnwell reached a similar conclusion, advising readers that not only can cellphones be put to productive use in the classroom, but that failing to do so may actually be doing students a disservice. How else, he asked, can schools prepare students for the 鈥渞eal world鈥�? (And if that sounds familiar, it might be because you鈥檝e been reading modern arguments over the place of AI in schools.)
But for teachers in schools without a clear cellphone policy, finding those academic applications for smartphones amid the TikTok distractions is no easy task. You could try five tips from high school teacher Curtis White on 鈥�Harnessing the Power of the Cellphone in Class.鈥� Or perhaps check out education consultant Matthew Lynch鈥檚 three strict rules for classroom cellphone use.
More recently, a slew of educators shared their own strategies for curbing cellphone misuse, in response to Opinion blogger Larry Ferlazzo鈥檚 call for teacher contributions:
- Classroom Cellphone Use Is Fraught. It Doesn鈥檛 Have to Be
- Should Cellphones Be Permitted in Classrooms? Teachers Offer These Strategies
- Let鈥檚 Not Oversimplify Students鈥� Cellphone Use
In the past few years, several education researchers have also shared best practices on cellphone use in psychologist Angela Duckworth鈥檚 Ask a Psychologist opinion blog. Drawing on his bumpy experiences trying to set boundaries on his own 11-year-old daughter鈥檚 smartphone use, education researcher Tom Harrison offered 鈥�4 Strategies to Help Students Manage Cellphone Use in School.鈥�
In another post, Duckworth reminded readers of some basic self-control tricks to help kids resist the siren song of screen time.
Psychology professor Jean M. Twenge, who dug through data from 11,000 teens to conclude that 鈥渘ot all screen time is created equal,鈥� laid down some do鈥檚 and don鈥檛s for cellphone access in the blog.
But not everyone is optimistic on finding a middle ground between endless distraction and productive learning tool. In a widely read 2016 Opinion essay, teacher Steve Gardiner had another word for his students鈥� relationships to their phones: addiction.
鈥淎ddiction is a strong word, but it accurately describes the dysfunctional behavior exhibited by teenagers in my high school English classroom when I ask them to put away their cellphones,鈥� he wrote. Gardiner wasn鈥檛 calling for a blanket ban on phones鈥攊ndeed, he identified some legitimate academic uses of the technology鈥攂ut rather sounding the alarm on the 鈥渙bsessive and dependent behavior鈥� undergirding student cellphone misuse.
鈥淲e have incentives to promote attendance and graduation,鈥� he concluded, 鈥渂ut many teenagers need help, because their bodies are in the classroom, but their minds are inside their cellphones.鈥�
For some teachers, that cellphone dependency has gotten bad enough to sour them on the profession entirely. That鈥檚 the story of high school biology teacher Mitchell Rutherford, who decided to quit teaching in part because of the exhaustion he felt from competing with cellphones for students鈥� attention.
鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 emotionally available for myself or my wife,鈥� he told 91直播 earlier this month, 鈥渂ecause I was pouring my heart into my students that I saw struggling with socializing, anxiety, and focus, which in my opinion is largely caused and certainly exacerbated by intentionally designed addictive cellphone apps.鈥�
Explore our coverage around students鈥� use of cellphones in schools:
> Guide to setting a policy: Here鈥檚 a decisionmaking tool for educators to map out the different potential outcomes when putting cellphone policies in play.
> Cellphone bans and restrictions: See which states are requiring cellphone restrictions or bans in schools in our tracker. Explore our tracker.
> Nuisance or teaching tool? How teachers are turning an ubiquitous and growing class nuisance鈥攖he smartphone鈥攊nto a tool for learning.
> Cellphone policies, explained: 91直播 breaks down the different ways schools are addressing cellphone use, and the factors to weigh before adopting or changing the rules. Check out our explainer.
> Tips from teens & teachers: Teenagers offer 6 tips on how schools should manage students鈥� cellphone use, and educators share their tips on policing cellphone use in classrooms.
> Then & now: How the 鈥渟exting鈥� panic previewed today鈥檚 debate about kids鈥� cellphone use.
