Removing phones is winding back the technological clock, and such attempts usually fail
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They're supposed to be paying attention, but some are on their smartphones instead. The instructor is a little annoyed, as she should be.
But this is not a classroom full of students obsessed with their smartphones and their devices – it's a faculty meeting.
Yes, some of the same teachers, myself included, who don't allow phones in class, are sneaking a peak at theirs, perhaps not an hour after lecturing our students about having their phones out or snapping, "Put that damn phone away!"
In looking for solutions to problems in our schools, there's an unfortunate tendency to look for specific villains to blame, and to see addressing these as a silver bullet. (Paul Buckowski/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)
And while some adults love to speak contemptuously of "those kids and their phones," put any group of people in a large room for a meeting and you'll have the same result.
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Banning phones is the idea of the moment among politicians, educators and education advocates. For example, California Gov. Gavin Newsom pledges he will sign a smartphone ban into law this summer. The Los Angeles Unified School District Board just voted to ban phones starting in January.
LAUSD will prohibit students from using their phones during school hours, including nutrition and lunch. Each school will decide how to implement the phone ban.
The reasons for the ban are obvious: phones are absolutely a distraction in the classroom, and social media cause conflict between students.
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Recently, one of the deans at our school, after breaking up another fight, shook his head and said, "Most of these damn things are caused by posts on social media." Two girls get into a social media war, their boyfriends each defend their girl out of a combustible mix of chivalry and stupidity, and they end up in a fight.
Other conflicts are born of traditional bullying, but now broadcast to a much wider audience.
However, most school districts’ internet already blocks social media sites such as Instagram and TikTok, as well as various websites. And, ban or no, social media wars can and will go on outside of school hours.
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Parents are already speaking out against the phone ban – phones allow them to coordinate pickups and scheduling and to communicate with their kids in an emergency.
Parents are accustomed to being able to get messages to their kids whenever they want – if phones are taken away, schools will have to deal with an influx of calls from parents, at least until parents become accustomed to the ban. Teachers will have to live with students being yanked out of class to take calls and classes being interrupted with hand-delivered messages from the school office.
The larger problem is how to enforce a ban. For some students, taking away their phone is a grievous act they tenaciously resist. It's not uncommon for students to walk into a class sixth period buzzing about a big blowup that happened in fifth when a teacher tried to take away a student's phone. Nor is it not unheard of for a teacher to have a physical altercation with a student over a phone.
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Moreover, students’ phone-based activities and distractions have already been migrating to their Apple Watches to evade our class rules limiting phones, a trend a ban will accelerate. From a teacher's perspective, the watches are much more difficult to police than the phones.
Removing phones is winding back the clock on technological progress, and such attempts usually fail, particularly when it concerns a convenience all of us, including teachers, appreciate.
In looking for solutions to problems in our schools, there's an unfortunate tendency to look for specific villains to blame – video games, smartphones, social media, and whatever else we lament about "kids today" – and to see addressing these as a silver bullet.
If enforcing the ban is not a continual battle, an endless cat-and-mouse game, or a lot of extra work for already overworked teachers, I certainly wouldn't miss having to deal with phones in class. But even if we could get them to disappear, it’s not going to change things that much.
I hope I'm wrong, but my guess is that phone bans will prove to be more trouble than they're worth.
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Glenn Sacks teaches social studies and represents United Teachers Los Angeles at James Monroe High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He served as a strike captain in both the 2019 and 2023 teacher strikes. His columns on education have been published in dozens of America's largest publications. Follow him on Twitter @GlennSacks.
