The latest catchphrase sweeping the nation is “phone-free school.” In an age where smartphones have become ubiquitous, more and more schools are adopting policies to remove phones from the hands of students. In this article, we will look at the reasons behind this move to create distraction-free environments. Even though many classical schools are already low-tech, it is well worth considering how to approach the role of phones in the lives of students. We will also consider the thesis of Jonathan Haidt in his new book The Anxious Generation to learn more about what we can do to enable our students to lay a good foundation during their childhoods for a life of flourishing in the midst of a phone-based society.
The concept of banning mobile devices in schools should be thought of first and foremost about the learning environment. As we consider the role that phones play in the lives of children, there are good reasons why families might consider placing a phone in their child’s hands. There is a feeling of safety to be able to contact one another at a moment’s notice. Parents have the ability to find their location through tracking apps. Not only is there a feeling of safety, but there is also a feeling of technological advantage in a world that is so driven by devices. Or to put it another way, parents feel that by not entrusting these devices to children, they will fall behind their peers in ways that might have implications for their education and careers.
However, more and more parents, teachers and leaders are waking up to the idea that mobile devices are harmful for children. Haidt highlights four ways that phones have harmed children: social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction. There is much onus on parents to lead the charge in the battle to save children from these harms. But there is equally a burden of responsibility on schools to not only protect children from these harms, but also to educate and train students to rise to the challenge of our phone-based society. To that end, we need to talk about phone-free policies for our school. On top of that, we need to go beyond restrictions to encourage healthy face-to-face interactions within the school environment, to train students in gaining deep focus, and to provide a holistic framework that equips students to understand the role of technology in their lives.
A Review of The Anxious Generation
The 2024 release of Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation has swept the nation, appearing on the New York Times bestseller list for nonfiction every week since its publication in late March. This is not the first time he has written on topics pertaining to mental health and its modern causes, having co-authored The Coddling of the American Mind with Greg Lukianoff. What is not in question is that children today are describing themselves as experiencing greater depression and anxiety than previous generations. The debatable matter is what exactly has caused this increase to occur. Haidt’s answer is what he calls the “phone-based childhood.”
Without a doubt, the presence of smart phones in the pockets of our children has dramatically changed the experience of being a child. Haidt spells out the factors that contribute to the rising anxiety among children, adolescents and young adults. There are serious psychological implications for children growing up in a world that is hyper-connected to the internet. In particular, there are “four foundational harms” associated with a phone-based childhood, according to Haidt. First, children are deprived of face-to-face social interactions. Social media is often consumed in isolation within a virtual world at the expense of being physically present with others in the real world. Haidt writes, “Children need face-to-face, synchronous, embodied, physical play” (121). The absence of this kind of in-person interaction means that children lose out on the opportunities to learn the skills of social exchange and personal identity within groups where you have to navigate complex human dynamics.
Second, children are deprived of the sleep they need not only to support healthy physical growth, but also to consolidate their internal selves. When we sleep, there is a tremendous amount of activity that processes our experiences of life, be that what has been learned in school or the social interactions with friends and family. Haidt cites a study by Jean Twenge that found that “heavy use of screen media was associated with shorter sleep duration, longer sleep latency, and more mid-sleep awakenings” (124). Screen use, then, comes at a cost that can go unseen. Reduced hours of sleep and poor quality of sleep will have a dramatic impact on aspects of children such as concentration and mood.
Third, children are deprived of the power of attention. Smart phones increase the number of notifications and interrupts linear thought constantly. Haidt spells out the implications:
“Attention is a choice we make to stay on one task, one line of thinking, one mental road, even as attractive off-ramps beckon. When we fail to make that choice and allow ourselves to be frequently sidetracked, we end up in ‘the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state’ that [American psychologist William] James said is the opposite of attention.” (127)
Such deprivation of the power of attention has an obvious and significant impact on learning. The importance of attention has recently been expressed as the key factor driving excellence. According to Daniel Goleman in his book Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, attention connects to every aspect of life and achievement:
“In very recent years the science of attention has blossomed far beyond vigilance. That science tells us these skills determine how well we perform any task. If they are stunted, we do poorly; if muscular, we can excel. Our very nimbleness in life depends on this subtle faculty. While the link between attention and excellence remains hidden most of the time, it ripples through almost everything we seek to accomplish.” (2-3)
For this reason, the deprivation of attention strikes a blow at a core level, crippling the ability to students to shape their lives through the application of skills they might acquire.
Fourth, children suffer from the addictive nature of the apps on their smartphones (and in many cases other screen-based devices). Haidt is clear that the addictive nature of these devices does not mean that students are therefore addicted. He does, however, point out that “their desires are being hacked and their actions manipulated nonetheless.” (130) To put it another way, the pings, notifications, and alarms have a Pavlovian effect on children at a stage when they are most neurologically maleable. Social media and online games are often created to trigger addictive responses by teenagers, leaving them vulnerable to techniques that cause the them to spend more and more time in social media apps like Instagram and online games like Fortnite.
Additional Recent Research
Haidt’s book is well written making it an engaging and fairly easy read. This can potentially mask how well researched The Anxious Generation in fact is. Looking at the long list of references in the back, it is clear that Haidt has spent considerable time poring over the data. Even so, there does remain some amount of research that in the main corroborates Haidt’s perspective that smart phone are detrimental to children and adolescents.
One such corroboration is found in a review study published the summer of 2022 in the journal European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. The authors reviewed 25 studies published between 2011 and 2019 finding that the use of mobile phones and wireless devices “may be associated with poorer mental health in children and adolescents.” (Girela-Serrano, B.M., et al. “Impact of mobile phones and wireless devices use on children and adolescents’ mental health: a systematic review.” Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 33 (2024), 1621–1651.) What I find interesting about this review is that for the first decade of the existence of the iPhone, scientists were already aware of potential detriments to children and adolescents.
More recently, Bora Colak, in an essay published in 2024, explores recent data to examine the association between the use of smartphones and social media and problems children and adolescents experience in mental health. Similar to Haidt, Colak recommends increased awareness and policy initiatives to protect children and adolescents from harm. (Bora Colak, “Potential Harms of Excessive Social Media and Smartphone Use on Youth Mental Health,” in Dancyger, et al., eds., Pediatric Nonadherence (Springer, 2024), 59-70).
Granting that not every child experiences smartphone addiction in the extreme, the potential for continual harm for children and adolescents exists. One recent study looked at potential molecular and neurological pathologies associated with smartphone addiction, suggesting the implementation of anti-addiction therapies to mitigate the impact of smartphone addiction. (Faijan, et al. “Smartphone Addiction among Students and its Harmful Effects on MentalHealth, Oxidative Stress, and Neurodegeneration towards FutureModulation of Anti-Addiction Therapies: A Comprehensive Survey basedon SLR, Research Questions, and Network Visualization Techniques,” CNS & Neurological Disorders – Drug Targets 22 (2023), 1070-1089.)
Taken together, these and other recent studies should alarm parents and educators of the harm that smartphones and social media can inflict on children and adolescents. The potential harm to children is great enough that in 2023 Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released an Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health. The advisory states, “Extreme, inappropriate, and harmful content continues to be easily and widely accessible by children and adolescents. This can be spread through direct pushes, unwanted content exchanges, and algorithmic designs.” (8) In other words, the individuals who are most vulnerable to harm are not properly protected against some of the ways these social media are designed. Murthy strengthened his statement a year later in piece he published in the New York Times, calling for warning labels on social media platforms along the lines of those found on cigarette boxes.
Advice for Schools
What is clear from Haidt’s book and recent studies is that smartphone and social media use by children and adolescents can be harmful. As a result, parents and schools should amplify their protections for children. In this section, we will outline a few steps that can be taken in schools to proactively respond to these trends.
Become Truly Phone Free
Many schools have phone policies of some sort. Haidt amplifies the issue when he writes, “A phone ‘ban’ limited to class time is nearly useless. This is why schools should go phone-free for the entirety of the school day.” (249, emphasis original). Such an approach requires a secure location for phones where they can be parked far enough away from where students do academic work for them to be truly separated from the device.
At Clapham School, we implemented a program where a phone storage cabinet was placed near the receptionist desk. As students enter the school, they place their phone in the “phone home” and proceed into the school where they learn in classes and interact with one another without phones present. The advantages of this approach are that the phone is in a secure location and there is a responsible adult present at all times. The presence of the adult is important both for the security of the phones, but also to facilitate accountability for the students. Rather than sneaking access to the phone during passing periods, breaks or lunch, students are more inclined to interact with each other. If a situation arises where the student needs to ask a parent a question, they are permitted to go to the receptionist area to use the phone in a designed location. Unsurprisingly, these needs have been fairly rare. When the phone is not easily accessible at all times, many of those “needs” seem to evaporate.
As you consider implementing a phone-free policy at your school, there are few principles to keep in mind. One, the policy needs to begin with the security of the students’ devices, because if they feel their property is not secure, there will be immediate resistance. Two, the policy needs to have some amount of flexibility where students can have a designated location where they can transact any interactions that come up during the day. By having that location near the receptionist, an appropriate approach can be that the student use the school phone to reach parents, thereby negating even further the “need” for the personal device. Three, there needs to be true separation. A location in a classroom can end up being quite the distraction as the phones buzz and squawk throughout the day. It can be difficult to find a central location that can accommodate the student traffic and maintain optimal security. Four, having an adult present at the secure location means there’s on-the-ground support for policy implementation. Finally, there needs to be an inspiring set of ideas that motivate the policy. Showing students the pathway to rich fellowship and deep learning helps them to know that there is something good and worthwhile they are committing to, rather than seeing such a policy as solely the deprivation of their property.
Write a Technology Policy
Now, having a phone-free school does not mean having a technology-free school entirely. The reality is that students must be well equipped to navigate a world full of technological and virtual components. At one level, schools need to develop a strong technology policy. The guiding principle should be the academic use of technology. Students must learn how to use basic apps such as Word, a school-based email account, presentation platforms and spreadsheets. Most of these tools can be incorporated into the general objectives across the curriculum. For instance, teachers can articulate objectives that will see students able to format text, format documents, set up tables, integrate graphics, set up templates, use table of contents, use different methods of citations including footnotes. These kinds of objectives situate technology within a set of learning outcomes that wed technology to academic production.
The next level of technological training should incorporate the use of video production. After Covid, the use of video meetings has become a reality even in the academic space. Thus, when we think about rhetorical training, students should not only think about written and oral production, but what it takes to be not only comfortable on camera, but to view this as a medium for persuasive communication. Along these same lines, I could see schools articulating objectives where students learn how to develop their own blogs and complete assignments by producing video content. This set of outcomes equips students to inhabit the virtual world that is part of their reality not solely as consumers but as creators. As such, I think they are more likely to have a greater sense of their own identity consistent with their real-world selves rather than being swayed by an onslaught of influences through social media platforms.
In order to accomplish these technological outcomes, I do think there should be a some clear parameters set with regard to the use of technology in school. Three immediately come to mind. First, devices – and here I mean predominantly laptops or tablets – should only be taken out under the direction of a teacher. Here I am trying to push back against the inundation of devices in the classroom. Students should still experience school as a place where paper books are opened in literature class, and math problems are solved with pencils in hand. Second, it should be expressly stated that there is no social media or entertainment sites open in school. The sole purpose for devices is their academic use. This curtails the switching between windows to support singular focus on the work at hand. It also encourages face-to-face interactions outside the classroom, rather than students gathering around a laptop to watch a YouTube video. Third, screens ought to face out towards the public. This means that anybody walking by or circulating in a classroom can quickly and easily see what is happening on screen. These kinds of approaches to the technology policy enable accountability and mentoring, strengthening the habits of students in the school context.
Get Parent Commitment
Implementing a phone-free school program cannot happen without good parent partnership. Schools can help parents by providing readings and workshops to address the issues facing parents today. Administrators and teachers should invite discussion with parents to learn more about the pain points they experience raising children in a world with smartphones and social media. In all likelihood, a phone-free school is exactly what they would want for their children. That being said, good communication is necessary in order to assuage fears parents might have about their ability to stay in touch with their children when out of the home. These fears are often associated with safety concerns, so they will want to know the measures the school will take to ensure the safety of their child.
One way to amplify parent commitment is to embed the phone-free school program within a larger movement. A compelling vision has been cast by Justin Earley, author of Common Rule and Habits of the Household. He sets forth ten practices that help individuals, households and communities to develop healthy relationships with technology. One of the ten practices is a phone-free school. Set within a context of personal, family and community standards, the alignment of this visionary approach enables everyone to work together towards the goal of healthy approaches to technology in our lives. One of the tools available to individuals is a commitment form that can be signed. What something like this can do for a community is to put some kind of stake in the ground that states a commitment to certain standards of conduct. You can find more information about the movement, the practices and the form at hangtenmovement.com.
Get Outside
Returning for the moment to Haidt’s thesis that we have increased vigilance regarding playing outside and decreased vigilance regarding playing online, my advice to educators is to get the students outside. Children need more time experiencing the real world in unstructured play out of doors, particularly in contact with the richness that nature has to offer. There is actually good research to support this. The mindfulness movement gathered momentum in light of the Covid epidemic, and much of the research tells the tale that being outside in nature improves mood and decreases anxiety. Walking in nature can improve one’s mood even more than physical exercise alone, according to a 2020 study (Olafsdottir, et al. “Health Benefits of Walking in Nature: A Randomized Controlled Study Under Conditions of Real-Life Stress,” Environment and Behavior, 52 (2020), 248-274). Even if an immersive experience in nature is hard to come by, even taking a walk in an urban environment was shown to have positive results on the mood of students (Jingni Ma, et al., “Effectiveness of a mindful nature walking intervention on sleep quality and mood in university students during Covid-19: A randomised control study,” EXPLORE 19 (2023), 405-416.) The long and short of this is that we should enable students to experience the benefits of real world.
There are lots of ways that you can enable students to make rich connections with the outdoors. Sometimes even a simple walk taking only five to ten minutes can completely change the mood of the day for your class. Getting outdoors can take a more formal approach by planning a nature study lesson. Plan field trips where the day is spent at a local garden, farm or arboretum. The goal is to get outside and have a meaningful interaction with the physical space we inhabit.
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