Dear Readers,

At what point will schools wake up and realize what’s affecting students’ education the most: the cell phone? Any teacher in a classroom today knows all about the cell phone issue.

From kindergarten all the way up to senior year, students have one thing in common: cell phones.

Even though students spend the majority of their free time on their phones anyway, teachers struggle to garner the attention of the classroom because students are obsessed with their personal technological devices.

Students could be doing any number of things: texting their friends, shopping online, looking up the answers to their tests, or scrolling through the never-ending hole of social media.

While many teachers try to combat this, students are still distracted. If their phones are taken away, they worry that something will happen to them or that they will miss some vital updates from their family or friends.

If teachers try integrating phones into their lessons, students will ultimately get distracted by the barrage of notifications that their various apps send them.

Even if the teacher has a super-engaging, technologically advanced lesson plan ready to go, students will still find any reason at all to be on their phones for the wrong reasons.

Although there are many problems that teachers face every day when it comes to classroom management, what if solving one problem solved them all?

More schools need to consider banning phones.

And not just having a no-phone policy throughout the campus or district—literally not allowing students to bring their phones into the school.

Give kids the break they need by having a phone-free school.

Schools could even have a room where all the phones are kept.

There are many schools that have implemented systems like this.

Students must go through a room daily where they put their phones into a pre-marked locker.

Students could get their phones the second they leave campus, but as long as they are in class, they are not allowed to access them for any reason.

While many believe that students need phones to help in an emergency, this only causes more panic in an actual crisis.

Students need as few distractions as possible in an emergency, while teachers and administrators are appropriately trained to handle all situations.

Students need to follow the teachers’ instructions and not start taking videos or calling their friends.

Students have all the required technology for their schoolwork, and many would argue that schools should move away from technology to help critical thinking skills, so the subtraction of cell phones would be a net positive for most campuses.

More than anything, teachers and administrators need support from parents at home. With families on board, so much more can be done during the school day. Taking phones out of schools will only benefit students.

While many believe that it is a breach of their freedom, in reality it gives them more of it, because without it they’ll be free to learn.

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Thanks for reading!

I appreciate you taking the time to engage with these ideas, and I hope this newsletter gave you something to think about.

If you want to dig deeper, you can check out my website, where I share more thoughts on education, politics, and culture. On this masterpiece of a website, I keep a reading list of books that have shaped my thinking.

I also have a YouTube channel where I post the most entertaining and edifying videos online.

Finally, my podcast, The Modern Republic with Nathaniel Stryker, where I attempt to appear intelligent and knowledgeable on every issue under the sun.