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Parents claim that a cell phone keeps their kid safe, but I'd argue it rather disconnects and distracts. Here's why kids should leave their phones at home.

With a new school year beginning, many children are heading off to school with cell phones in their pockets. I hear about these phones from my young, technology-deprived children, who come home wondering why they can't also have an iPhone with cool games on it.

My reasons don't change; in fact, I become more certain and committed to my anti-phones-for-young-kids beliefs the more I read and hear. I tell my kids, who are seven and four, that they can have a cell phone when they're old enough to buy it and pay for a monthly plan themselves. That will be a while yet.

Why do my husband and I insist on such an old-fashioned, unpopular approach to cell phones?

Cell Phone Self-Control

First of all, I don't think that young kids (I'm talking about those in elementary school) possess the self-control not to engage with their cell phones while attending school. School is the all-important purpose of their lives right now, so why would I give them any device that would make it harder than it already is to learn? No matter how mature a child may be, the temptation of technology is hard to resist; we Millennial adults should know that better than anyone else. It's easier not to place that burden on my kid at all, rather than expect him to know how to handle it. Says Canadian non-profit research group, Media Smarts, "Even if a student does not own a phone themselves their presence in the classroom may cause distraction."

Distracted Learning

Second, teachers don't need more distractions in the classroom. Their job is hard enough. A 2015 research paper by the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics found that student test scores improve by 6.4 percent when cell phones are banned at schools and that there are no significant academic gains when the ban is ignored.

Third, some people argue that allowing cell phones in schools equalizes the playing field, but I disagree. The Mayor of New York is one such person, having lifted a ten-year ban on cell phones in schools in March 2015, with the noble intent of "reducing inequality." The Centre for Economic Performance has found this reasoning to be flawed:

"Low-achieving students are more likely to be distracted by the presence of mobile phones, while high achievers can focus in the classroom regardless of the mobile phone policy. This also implies that any negative externalities from phone use do not impact on the high achieving students. Schools could significantly reduce the education achievement gap by prohibiting mobile phone use in schools, and so by allowing phones in schools, New York may unintentionally increase the inequalities of outcome."

Encourage Social Interaction

Finally, why would I give them something that makes it more difficult to connect with other students? Go to any public place and you'll see the majority of people huddled over their miniature screens, lost in a private online world. I want something different for my kids. I want them to be forced to interact with fellow students, to make new friends, to engage in conversation, to play physically, to learn how to read facial expressions. I also want my kids to be able to approach adults, even strangers, and ask for assistance if they need it - without relying on a cell phone and me to get them out of a bind.

Media Smarts found that 20 percent of grade 4 students and half of grade 11 students sleep with their phones in case they receive a message in the night. Even 35 percent of students worry that they spend too much time online, which should be setting off parents' alarm bells right now. A big part of teaching digital literacy should be teaching our children when and how to turn off their phones, put them away, and leave them at home -- or not even giving them to our young kids, which is my preferred approach.

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Why Kids Shouldn't Take Their Cell Phones to School

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Parents claim that a cell phone keeps their kid safe, but I'd argue it rather disconnects and distracts. Here's why kids should leave their phones at home. With a new school year beginning, many children are heading off to school with cell phones in their pockets.

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R It is relate because it show the good side
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These days, more and more students are bringing cell phones to class. Even elementary school-aged students have cell phones in their pockets and backpacks.

However, the news of Ontario's decision to ban cell phones in classrooms opens again the debate about whether or not students should have cellphones in school. It also brings up the question of whether it's possible for technology to exist in the classroom as a learning tool-rather than simply a distraction.

Ontario's Classroom Cell Phone Ban

Starting in September 2019, cell phones will be banned in Ontario classrooms during instructional time.

The new ban means elementary and secondary school students won't be able to use their cellphones in the classroom unless it is for educational purposes, medical reasons, or as a support for students with special needs. How the ban is enforced will be up to individual boards and schools.

By banning cellphones, Ontario's Education Ministry hopes to remove distractions so students can focus on acquiring foundational learning skills they need, including reading, writing and math.

The decision and renewed debate has many teachers and parents left wondering: can cell phones ever really benefit students in class, or are they best left tucked away?

Read on to learn more about the pros and cons of students having cell phones in school.

Cell Phone Use In The Classroom

Students check their phones in the classroom an average of more than 11 times a day. That can add up to a lot of time spent distracted from schoolwork. And when students are distracted, it's a recipe for extra stress, frustration, and catch-up time for everyone.

With students spending up to 20% of their in-class time texting, emailing, and checking social media, it's no wonder the debate about cell phones in the classroom is alive and well.

Students check their cell phones in the classroom more than 11 times a day.
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Learn more about the pros and cons of students bringing their cell phones into the classroom.

How Cell Phones Can Be Used Effectively In the Classroom

If properly managed, cell phones can be used as tools to help children learn in the classroom. The following are some of the pros of allowing cell phones in school:

1. Using educational learning apps

Cell phones give students access to tools and apps that can help them complete and stay on top of their class work. These tools can also teach students to develop better study habits, like time management and organization skills.

2. Incorporating digital platforms into lessons

Using social media can keep students interested in class and encourage them to participate in the discussion. Some teachers create twitter hashtags or message boards students can use during class discussions to share thoughts and ideas. This can be especially helpful for students who might not be comfortable speaking in class.

3. Supplementing lessons with digital materials

Teachers can take advantage of cell phones by providing students with resources to find more information about a topic. This can include videos, news stories, online discussion groups, and more. Allowing students to access these resources in class can help encourage participation and discussions.

4. Providing easy access to more information

Cell phones can give students access to more information, letting them research more about a topic while having class discussions. This is especially true for current events that have not yet been covered in school textbooks.

The Drawbacks Of Allowing Cell Phones In Classrooms

While cell phones can be used as learning tools, it is a challenge to make sure students are using them for school-related tasks. A cell phone can easily turn from "classroom learning tool" into "classroom disruption".

Cons of allowing cell phones in school include:

1. Distractions and interruptions

When students use their cell phones to check social media and text their friends in class, it leads to distractions for those students as well as for their peers. This can cause disruptions in class, particularly if the teacher is constantly telling students to turn their devices off.

2. Cyberbullying

Cell phones can also lead to increased problems with bullying on the schoolground. Cyberbullying can be harder to see than other forms of bullying, making it difficult for teachers to identify and stop when it is happening.

3. Cheating

Cell phones can be a helpful learning tool in class. But they can also be used by students to access information while taking a test, leading to cheating. Even if a student isn't caught, this can lead to him or her having a poor understanding of the material in the future, and is unfair to students who studied hard to do well.

4. Disconnection from face-to-face activities

While cell phones can help encourage participation by offering different channels, this can also lead to less in-person discussion and fewer learning opportunities. Learning to work together with others is an important part of students' education, and can be lost with too much dependence on cell phones and other digital technology.

The Bottom Line: Should Students Have Cell Phones In School?

There's no easy answer: there are both pros and cons to students having cell phones in school. Although they can be used as a learning tool in the classroom, this only works as long as students use them effectively.

This means for teachers who decide to use cell phones (or any other digital device) as part of their lessons, it's important to set ground rules and keep a close eye on how they are being used.

Where do you stand on the cell phone debate? Let us know by tweeting @oxfordlearning on Twitter!

Related Resources:

Is Multitasking Bad For Students?
How To Study Without Being Distracted

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Should Cell Phones Be Allowed In Classrooms? | Oxford Learning

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Should students have cell phones in the classroom? Learn more about the pros and cons of students having cell phones in school, and weigh in on the debate.

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10 Reasons Why Cell Phones Shouldn't Be Allowed In School

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If kids are constantly on their phones at school, then what makes you think they're not going to do the same thing at home. If they're distracted throughout the day and not doing work in school, homework is less likely to get done at home.

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Should you let your kids have a cellphone in school?

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Digital device policies are all over the map in U.S. schools. Parents and teachers are divided on whether to curb or ban phone use on school grounds.

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There's no doubt that smartphones have remarkable capabilities which, in theory, could promote student learning. But the truth is that kids - in spite of the best efforts of parents and teachers - use their phones primarily to access digital amusements. A Kaiser Family Foundation report says: "The transformation of the cell phone into a media content delivery platform [has]... facilitated an explosion in [entertainment] media consumption among American youth," including TV and video games.

It's therefore not surprising that a recent London School of Economics study found that schools which ban the use of phones experienced a substantial improvement in student test scores, with the researchers concluding that phones "can have a negative impact on productivity through distraction." Researchers found that phones hurt vulnerable students the most. Study co-author Dr. Richard Murphy, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Texas, reports: "Allowing phones into schools would be the most damaging to low-achieving and low-income students, exacerbating any existing learning inequalities."

Research on college students (average age 18) in a simulated classroom reveals how phones hurt learning, as students who did not use their phones "wrote down 62 percent more information in their notes, took more detailed notes, were able to recall more detailed information from the lecture, and scored a full letter grade and a half higher on a multiple choice test than those students who were actively using their mobile phones."

The Illusion of Safety

Understandably, some may believe that children's safety is improved if parents and children can reach one another by phone during the school day. However, in order to get a message from their parents, students must constantly monitor their phones, even during class. This constant phone and online use is now recognized as posing risks for children. Why? Because research is revealing that kids who spend more time online are more likely to be involved in cyberbullying than kids who spend less.

Schools therefore inadvertently increase the chances that kids will be cyberbullied at school through open phone policies. Marc Vincenti, a retired English teacher from Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California, witnessed how students using phones during school increases their risks of being victimized. Vincenti asked one of his students, who appeared troubled, if she was okay. She responded, "I'm so sorry, but on my way to your class I got a text six pages long from my boyfriend's old girlfriend saying what a slut I am."

We should be doing everything we can to limit cyberbullying, especially during school hours, as research shows that it increases the danger that kids will skip school or consider suicide. Schools will protect students' safety by having them keep their phones off in backpacks from morning bell to last. If parents or children need to reach one another, the school office can be used - a policy that has worked well for decades.

The Need for Leadership

Schools will clearly promote their students' academic success and safety by limiting the use of student phones during school hours. Presently, most schools leave it to teachers to manage phone distractions in their own classrooms. But this piecemeal approach has left teachers with inadequate support to confront the difficult and potentially unsafe task of limiting disruptive phone use by defiant students. In a recent New York Times' article, teacher Ed Boland acknowledges, "I just wish somebody told me how to get a cellphone out of a kid's hand."

School leaders and teachers therefore need to work together to help students and parents recognize the substantial benefits of keeping phones off during school. Such teacher-leader cooperation will also ensure that phone limits extend to lunch and passing periods to protect students.

Principal Anita Berger of Banneker High School, a Washington, DC magnet school, is providing strong leadership on student phones, particularly considering the challenges faced by her students. Banneker's student body is 85 percent black, a group of teens who - according to a recent Common Sense Media report - nationally spend almost twice the amount of time each day using phones when compared with white children (4 hours, 11 minutes to 2 hours, 12 minutes). Black students also tend to score lower academically than white children. So, Banneker's students would especially benefit from school phone limits which, according to the London School of Economics phone study, particularly help lower achieving students.

Principal Berger and Banneker have done just that, with a rule that students don't use phones during the school day. This has helped Banneker students excel, as the school ranks in the top 2 percent on The Washington Post's list of America's most challenging high schools, and nearly 100 percent of its graduates are accepted into post-secondary institutions. "Although we know there are many benefits to mobile technology," Berger says, "the distractions outweigh the benefits."

Banneker's phone limits also promote a supportive and engaging school community. "We do not have social media drama, and students actually interact with one another during lunch," Principal Berger adds. Schools across America can learn a lot from Banneker.
Richard Freed, Ph.D., is a child and adolescent psychologist and a leading authority on raising children in the digital age. Dr. Freed is author of the Wired Child . He lives in Walnut Creek, California and is the father of two girls.

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Why Phones Don't Belong in School - Wait Until 8th

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There's no doubt that smartphones have remarkable capabilities which, in theory, could promote student learning. But the truth is that kids - in spite of the best efforts of parents and teachers - use their phones primarily to access digital amusements.

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Banning cell phones from class helps students focus