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What happens when a school bans smartphones? A complete transformation

Buxton was wrapping up the first year of a simple yet novel experiment: banning cellphones on campus. Or, rather, smartphones.

Instead, the school gave everyone on campus – including staff – a Light Phone, that is, a “dumb” phone with limited functionality. The devices can make calls, send texts (slowly) and can’t load modern applications; instead coming with deliberately cumbersome versions of music and mapping apps. They are about the size of a deck of cards, with black and white screens.

As one student put it: “It’s like the demon baby of an iPad and a Kindle.”

Most everyone agrees, however, that the school is better off with these hell devices. (And yes, that includes students.) There are fewer interruptions during class, more meaningful interactions around campus, and less time spent on screens.

For many teachers, their students’ phone use is exasperating. “It’s every class, every period,” said Mark McLaughlin, a math teacher at Neah-Kah-Nie high school in Oregon. “The worst part of my job is being the cellphone police.”

Educators across the country report waging a near-constant battle against phones. A survey of a school district in Virginia found that about a third of teachers were telling students to put away their cellphones five to 10 times a class, and 14.7% did so more than 20 times a class.

When a middle school in Canada surveyed staff, 75% of respondents thought that cellphones were negatively affecting their students’ physical and mental health. Nearly two-thirds believed the devices were adversely affecting academic performances as well.

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If its a Public School, Funded by Public Funds... This should be a Nationwide Ban in Public Schools. Private Schools likely will follow suit.

We know these smart phone are a issue... because as adults in the workplace, we see how distracting they are. During meetings, even when signs are up to tell people to silence their phone, still it has be repeated and even pointed out directly to some to put their phone away. I've sent people out of meeting to go to their manager, when they kept using their phones. We've done classes where people can't pay attention for using their smart phones.

America functions well in business when people were in meeting and smart phones did not exist. Any supervisor or manager should be responsible enough to know how to delegate responsibilities to someone, while they are in a meeting. If they can't, then they are not a good supervisor and not a good managers, because they did not prepare their work force to function in their temporary absence.

No one is so important, that the operation can't function without them for a few hours.

We are so callous with these smart phones, there are people still texting and driving, reading social media while driving and some of these people are causing accidents where others lose their lives.

We've allowed people to circumvent their responsivities by allowing smart phone usage without restrictions in the workplace and in schools. I'm sure if someone did a cost analysis on the $value of loss that these smart phones have created, it would astronomical.

We see people using these Units at time that are not conducive to taking care of things they should be giving their attentions to, especially in school and in work.

It's only going to get worst with A.I. enable smart phone, if we don't put some rules and regulations in place, both in school and on jobs.

We have the same problem with our Politicians, and no smart phones should be allowed in Congressional and Legislative Chambers.

Ipads and such, issued to students and politicians should have sites such as Facebook, X, and such, blocked on those units by some means the minute they enter a class room, or Congressional chamber or State Legislative Chambers. These are places they need to pay attention!!!

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