Smart idea to ban phones in schools

Ontario’s government has promised to ban smartphones in the classroom. It is right to. More vexing than the question of whether the government should go ahead is the question of how these devices were allowed free rein in classrooms in the first place.

iPhones and their like are carefully engineered to consume the maximum possible portion of their users’ attention, and are crammed full of apps designed to do the same. In many Canadian schools, students are entitled to have them turned on all the time. Predictably, this has led to many reports of students texting, using social media and surreptitiously watching videos in class, to the frustration of teachers and the detriment of their education.

Some teachers allow pupils to keep their phones in the classroom but only if the devices are contained in special bags that block Wi-Fi signals. But why bother with halfmeasures? Far better just to confiscate phones at the start of every school day, to be returned at the final bell.

Smartphones have no place in schools; whatever perks they offer as teaching tools are vastly outweighed by their power to distract and socially alienate.

That’s the conclusion the French government reached when it banned smartphone use on school property for primary and junior school pupils. The new law, passed in July, is meant to curb digital distraction, encourage pupils to be active and combat cyberbullying.

The evidence suggests pupils could thrive in their new phone-free environments. A 2015 study by the London School of Economics found that British schools with smartphone bans saw student performance improve 6% on average.

That finding is hardly a surprise. Does anyone really think it’s a good idea to send children to school with the most potent entertainment technology ever invented in their pockets? The wonder is that we have let it happen this long. /September 9 2018