The Last Cellphone Rant for 2024

Kids can’t read.

Kids can’t do math.

Neighborhood schools are closing.

Black, brown, and poor learners are seriously behind their white counterparts when it comes to achievement.

And the most important topic discussed in our K-12 world this school year – so far – is whether kids will be allowed to access cell phones in our nation’s classrooms or not.

It’s difficult to ascertain what our educational media might write about if they didn’t have the topic of cell phones as a dependable “go to” when it comes to K-12 news. Witness an article posted on EducationWeek this past July titled “How to Manage Cellphones in Schools: 6 Tips From Teens.” The article begins:

“A rising number of school districts and states are putting in place more restrictive policies to curb the use of cellphones in schools. The policy trend is a direct response to concerns that the devices are hurting students’ abilities to concentrate in school and build meaningful relationships with peers and adults in their lives.”

“But in many cases, policies are being put in place before the people most affected by such measures – the students themselves – are asked what they think would work best.”

And here are their “tips”:

• “Try ‘phone fasts’ or schoolwide phone bans – that include staff – of a day or a week to help students see the benefits of disconnecting.”
• “Communicate clear expectations at the start of the school year around cellphone use.”
• “Provide a variety of phone-free, after-school activities for students so they have alternatives to sitting at home scrolling through their phones.”
• ”Explicitly teach students ‘cellphone etiquette,’ such as putting phones down and making eye contact when engaged in conversations and asking permission before taking photos of someone.”
• “Acknowledge the benefits cellphones and social media provide students, such as finding supportive communities, developing new hobbies and interests, and networking.”
• “Teach digital citizenship skills, such as awareness that what they post online will follow them forever and could harm their reputations.”

I wonder what traditional school would look like if they asked students to offer up six tips on how to improve their reading skills, or math skills. I wonder how many neighborhood schools would close if school district leadership would ask the community to suggest six ways those schools might stay open. I wonder how many black, brown, and poor learners and their families would be better served if six strategies were identified and implemented to make those kids smarter and stronger moving forward.

We continue to work on the wrong things in our K-12 traditional system. There’s a management model out there titled “Activity Avoidance.” “Activity Avoidance” tells us that, instead of working on the work that matters, no matter how hard that work might be, it is typical of human behavior to ignore that important work in favor of work that really doesn’t matter.

The work of banning cellphones in our public schools really doesn’t matter.

And I promise that’s the last time you will read about cellphones being banned at ABPTL.

At least until 2025. Til tomorrow. SVB