Another province takes cellphones out of schools

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This article was published 19/06/2024 (495 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Here’s an experiment you can try for yourself, at the office while a group of people are waiting for a meeting to start, or waiting to pick up your car at the garage, or even in the nearest doctor’s office.

Take your cellphone out of your pocket or your bag and look at it. Don’t turn it on: just look at it, and let your eyes scan the room loosely. And watch the way your co-workers or co-waiters — sometimes even somewhat guiltily — slowly produce their phones, too. It can be like a little blossoming of connectivity, all around you. An urge that’s almost impossible to resist. Everyone together in setting themselves apart from everyone else.

You’re an adult — you know it’s unsafe to look at your tiny electronic screen just because you happen to be stopped at a traffic light or held up waiting for the flagperson to turn their sign and wave you forwards.

We’ve all become Pavlov’s dogs, hearing the phantom ringing of a bell and knee-jerk drooling for our electronic snack of dopamine. Is it any wonder that, for safety reasons, train crews are required to keep electronic devices like cellphones “turned off, stored out of sight and not on your person”, according to one Canadian company’s rulebook?

And to repeat: you’re an adult.

Imagine instead that you’re a middle school student, your mind and habits still not completely hardwired, your behaviours still being built and rebuilt and modified and built all over again. Or a high school student, thoroughly bored with school and already easily distracted.

Now imagine you’re that student and right there with you is a device that can distract you with anything from games to the latest hurtful gossip circling the school’s hallways.

How much impulse control do you think you’d have? At that age, even without cellphones, how much impulse control did you have?

On Monday, the Alberta provincial government joined a growing list of provinces and school divisions taking action against cellphone use on school grounds. In Alberta, students will have to turn off their electronic devices and keep them out of sight during class time — there are exceptions for students who require access to the devices for medical reasons.

In Ontario, children in Grade 6 and below will have to have their phones off or silenced for the entire school day. For those above Grade 6, phones will be allowed to be used only between classes or during lunch periods.

Quebec and British Columbia are also among the provinces bringing in new provincewide cellphone guidelines — in Manitoba, individual school districts have brought forward different types of bans as well.

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There are two reasons being cited for launching the bans: one is for the ability of the devices to interrupt the learning process. Following the class lesson plan is difficult when you’re being distracted by a galaxy of information you find more interesting.

The second has to do with mental health: this week, the U.S. surgeon-general asked the American Congress to put warning labels on social media platforms, saying the sites contribute to mental health problems in young people. Teachers, well attuned to the circumstances of their charges, have plenty to say about the negative effects of social media on their students.

The truth is, the distraction is destructive to learning and harmful to mental health. It’s tough to argue that smart phones belong full-time in schools.

Oh, and did you hear the “ding” of a notification coming in on your phone while you were reading this editorial?

Bet you looked to see what it was.