Across the country and the world, phones have become inseparable from all parts of everyday lives. This leads to some distractions from education, and some schools have worked to solve this problem.
Neighboring Derry Township School District has recently enacted a cell phone ban which states that phones are to be kept out of sight for the entirety of the school day. This rule is mandatory.
At Lower Dauphin, though, there is no school-wide policy prohibiting cell phone use. Students are free to take their phones to their classes, and are directed to only use them when their teacher approves it. Some students, however, are disrespectful of this privilege, so certain teachers have taken preventative action to encourage learning in the classroom.
For example, Ms. Stephanie Maurer, an LDHS teacher in the math department, collects cell phones upon students’ entrance into her classroom. The phones are placed in numbered pockets on the wall so students don’t have them during class unless there is free time and she returns them.
Maurer says, “My hope is that there will be a positive correlation with grades, maybe not dramatically, but an increase in homework getting done too. The biggest thing I’m looking for, though, is the social interaction. Will I see peers engaging more with each other? Engaging with the work? Engaging with the lesson? Engaging with me? Overall, more engagement from the students.”
Lily Kratz, sophomore, says teachers “should only take [phones] if [they’re] becoming a problem for a student. That could cause more problems too because if you take it right off the bat you’ll have more annoyed students.”
According to research done by Harvard Graduate School of Education, “the existing studies provide evidence that allowing phones in the classroom negatively impacts test scores and long-term learning retention.”
In a world of AI, endless online distractions, and serious phone addictions, teachers and students are struggling to come to compromise that benefits everyone. So the debate is bound to continue: should teachers collect cell phones?
