More and more students are returning to the classroom without one key thing: their phone number
Next year, she hopes to go to college and looks forward to freedom.
Transcript:
Host Steve Inskeek:
More and more states are banning students from using their cell phones during class. Some individual schools. One of my kids had to use small bags to pull the phone away during school hours. NPR’s Sequoia Carrillo has this story.
Sequoia Carrillo, Byline: This school year is the first year in which every student in Texas public and charter schools has no phone call during school. But Brigette Whaley, associate professor of education at West Texas A&M, has a lot of things going on.
Brigette Whaley: A more equitable environment for classrooms that are more attractive to students.
Carrillo: She spent her last year investigating the launch of a cell phone ban at a public high school in West Texas, focusing on how teachers feel about the program. They saw more dialogue between improved engagement and students.
Whaley: They are really happy to see students prefer to work with each other.
Carrillo: According to her research, students’ anxiety can also plummet. main reason? Students are not afraid of shooting and embarrassment at any time.
Wally: They can relax and participate in the classroom and have no anxiety about what other students are doing.
Carrillo: The West Texas findings match the results in many states and territories that don’t have cell phones back to school. Students learn better in a phone-free environment. Bipartisan support is a rare issue that can quickly adopt policies in many states. Wally said this rapid pace can sometimes harm the impact of policy. When most of her teachers studied support the ban…
Wally: There is a teacher who doesn’t implement the policy well, which seems to cause difficulties for other teachers.
Alex Stegner: Every teacher has some different policies on this.
Carrillo: That’s Alex Stegner, a social studies and geography teacher in Portland, Oregon, talks about cell phone bans in his area. He said different types of law enforcement are normal in his school. Last year, every teacher at Lincoln High School had a lock box that could collect phone calls at the beginning of class.
Stegner: Some teachers don’t lock the box. Some teachers opened the door. Some teachers like me locked them in. I’m just committed to giving it all and I love it.
Carrillo: Last year was the first year he hadn’t spent class time chasing his phone in the room, he said. Now, things are changing as Lincoln enters some kind of ban in the second year. This year, students’ phones will be locked throughout the day, not just class hours. Stegner believes it will be a learning curve, not just teachers and students.
Stigner: I think some parents will struggle. But I do think that it seems we have to do something different.
Carrillo: Like many schools, Lincoln High School will distribute separate lock bags (called Yondr Pouches) to students this year, used in the Texas whaling area, bags studied in Texas and about 2 million students nationwide.
Stegner: I heard stories about Yondr Pouches last year, you know, open, destroyed. And there is a whole, like a logistic stuff, which gives students these pouches and tells them, like, well, now that’s your responsibility.
Carrillo: So, teachers seem to like cell phone bans. But as for the kids…
Rosalie Morales: You will see a different reaction from the students.
Carrillo: Rosalie Morales is overseeing Delaware’s pilot program in her second year to ban statewide mobile phone bans. She investigated teachers and students at the end of her first year to ask if the ban should continue. 83% of teachers say yes, while only 11% of students agree.
Zoe George: This is annoying.
Carrillo: Zoe George, a student at early stages of Bard High School in Manhattan, said no one asked her until New York state banned her cell phones.
George: I hope they can hear more.
Carrillo: She is concerned about the impact on homework and homework during her freedom. She said her school does not have enough laptops for every student, so students often use their cell phones. But it’s just a hassle.
George: This is not the worst because it was my last year. But at the same time, it was my last year.
Carrillo: Next year, she hopes to go to college and she looks forward to freedom.
Sequoia Carrillo (NPR News).
(Song’s voice, “phone”)
Erykah Badu: (singing) I can let you do it, I can let you, I can let you put down your phone.
INSKEEP: Is there any human history of mobile phone survival? Yes. Yes, there are.
