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Can you please print this out? One for everyone.

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However, none of these supposed advantages can overcome one very basic disadvantage: Cell phones distract students from schoolwork and class activities. Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day. According to the Pew study, "Older teen girls ages 14-17... average 100 messages a day." It's naïve to imagine that students armed with cell phones won't be quietly typing away under their desks, sending messages or surfing the Internet. And this activity is much harder to regulate than traditional note-passing.

So what's the solution? Do teachers simply need to crack down harder, to impose harsher penalties against extracurricular texting and Internet surfing? Or are the cell phones themselves a symptom of a larger problem?

An observer walking into an American school might notice the noise -- not only the talking and shouts among students during their hourly migrations between classrooms, but in the classrooms as well. Silence in class is an all-too-rare phenomenon. If the teacher isn't talking or an instructional video isn't playing, there's likely to be the incessant talking of students among themselves. All in all, there is lots of Sturm and Drang, not enough contemplative thinking and learning.

There may not be one right way of educating. The Waldorf School philosophy of pen and paper, blackboards and chalk, can work fine for some students. But computers in the classroom can also work. What's clear either way is that students must be taught to love learning -- to embrace the process of finding answers. In a recent New York Times article titled "A Silicon Valley School That Doesn't Compute," Paul Thomas, a former teacher and an associate professor of education at Furman University was quoted as saying, "Teaching is a human experience. Technology is a distraction when we need literacy, numacy, and critical thinking."

Many high school students have grown unaccustomed to reading anything longer than a 140-character tweet. And at a time when calculators are available on every cell phone, they've grown more dependent than ever on letting machines solve even the simplest of problems. What students lose in such a dependency is an ability to respond quickly on their feet -- in a boardroom presentation, for example -- as well as a keen common sense about math and science. There's no thinking going on.

So, how should schools cope with the short attention spans and the need for entertainment among many students? The solution is cultural: Teachers, parents, and administrators need to agree that there is no substitute for sustained cognitive thinking, inductive and deductive reasoning, or detailed analysis and problem solving.

And students need more than just discipline in the classroom. They also need to be inspired to learn about the wonders of life, of humanity, of nature, of our planet, of the cosmos. School policies outlawing cell phones are clearly not enough -- the effective teacher must connect with his or her students in order to hold their attention. There must be a magnetism, a bond between them, a sparking of a brotherhood in the battle for knowledge -- a quest to figure things out, to understand, and to marvel and rejoice in that insight.

All of this may seem easier said than done, and the most idealistic teachers often find themselves running up against unimaginative curricula and restrictive policies. But the incessant cell phone use going on in our classrooms must serve as a challenge, forcing us to remember what education is really about. The teacher's goal must be to instill an insatiable desire to learn. Because both inside and outside the classroom, there's so much to do and so little time.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Robert Earl, a partner in a strategic consulting firm in Arlington, Virginia, has served in the federal government, in the defense industry, and in the Marine Corps. He is a Naval Academy graduate and Rhodes Scholar and has spent many years observing public school classrooms.

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However, none of these supposed advantages can overcome one very basic disadvantage: Cell phones distract students from schoolwork and class activities. Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day. According to the Pew study, "Older teen girls ages 14-17... average 100 messages a day."

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Jack, Farras, Tyler, Kyle. Conversation article

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Nearly a century after German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche first proclaimed "God is dead," TIME magazine released a controversial cover on its April 8, 1966 edition with the related provocative question: "Is God dead?"

Both Nietzsche and TIME were exploring the prominence of God in people's lives, and whether religiosity was on the decline in the society. Fifty years later, religion experts are still grappling with that question, though the context has drastically changed.

By many measures, religious practice and affiliation has greatly declined in the United States in the last 50 years. And yet spirituality, religion's free-spirited sibling, appears to be as strong -- if not stronger -- than ever.

Here's a look at some of the ways religious practice and belief have changed in the U.S. the last 50 years, and the trends that may continue to evolve:

At the heart of American faith's evolution is what religion journalist Krista Tippett calls a "proliferation of ways to engage spiritual practice." Yes, you'll still find Bibles in hotel rooms, but you'll also see yoga and meditation rooms in some airports and Muslim prayer spaces on many college campuses. What it means to be spiritual -- and how that looks in practice -- is rapidly changing and diversifying. But rather than diminishing Americans' faith, this transformation is also crystallizing certain core values, like service, community and connection to something greater than ourselves.

BEFORE YOU GO

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American Religion Has Never Looked Quite Like It Does Today

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Nearly a century after German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche first proclaimed "God is dead," TIME magazine released a controversial cover on its April 8, 1966 edition with the related provocative question: "Is God dead?" Both Nietzsche and TIME were exploring the prominence of God in people's lives, and whether religiosity was on the decline in the society.