Today is the first day of the Howard County School System’s new cell phone policy. On the one hand, March seems like an odd time to begin something like this. On the other hand, addressing the negative impact cell phones have had on kids at school is long overdue.
I have written about this quite a bit and you undoubtedly have your own opinion. I have no new information to impart. What I do have is a wish for better days ahead.
As convenient and helpful as cellphones can be - - when you really need them - - they have become a huge stumbling block in the classroom. They actively prevent teachers from doing their jobs. Frankly, teachers have a gazillion other challenges already. The daily wrestling with distracted students, more like whackamole than instruction, has been draining and demoralizing.
Many teachers have been pleading for a better cell phone policy. Yet today and the days ahead will be difficult and they know it. Much of the day-to-day enforcement will still be between teacher and student. The policy may have changed but by and large kids probably haven’t. Changing behavior takes time, especially when those behaviors are rooted in dependence.
The new policy won’t succeed unless teachers are given support from all sides to make it stick. That means admin and parents, too. Teachers do not need one more thing where they must fight alone against the world. We shouldn’t keep piling more and more on them only to be surprised when they break.
My heart goes out to students, too. For those who have become dependent on their phones this is going to be extremely stressful. Many kids don’t feel safe without their phones. How are we going to help them get through this? Is there a plan in place? Do parents know how to support kids at home as they go through this transition?
And what about parents? Some are extremely uncomfortable at losing the connection to their children that cell phones have provided. There are good reasons for that. We are asking a lot of them, too.
For so long the mantra has been “we just need to do it.” Now we’re doing it. It’s not a simple thing like flipping a switch. Social media has wormed its way into so many aspects of our kids’ lives that it has changed how they behave, how they think, and how they set their priorities. To challenge that dominance is not the work of one day.
I think it’s the right thing to do but I’m holding my breath. It’s so, so complicated.
Do you have thoughts on this? Let me know.
