Without [phones], schools see more learning, fewer fights, and calmer hallways | Hacker News Reader

Without [phones], schools see more learning, fewer fights, and calmer hallways

inquirer.com

54 pointsbkandel27 comments

I left school in the UK about 2 years after the release of the first iPhone. We were always banned from using phones even during breaks. If they were seen they were confiscated.

I can only imagine how distracting phones are today for kids in school, especially with the rise of extremely addictive apps like TikTok.

I think banning them in schools is a good thing and I’m not surprised schools are seeing improvements in behaviour without them.

That they are even allowed in the first place is startling and puts into question what schools are even for. Clearly those who draft policies where phones are allowed have no interest in your education.

We were not even allowed to have calculators :|

To me this sort of bans always feel like an easy way out. Why educate good phone use when you can just impose any rules you want?

While small things like this create a big contrast between "school" and the "real world". When kids are at home doing homework they will have access to phones. They live in a world where every adult always has a phone in their hand. Why not teach them good and healthy ways of using tools and technology?

Kids should only have access to a Nokia candybar phone and phpBB forums. That's what I had and I turned out alright... I think.

> When kids are at home doing homework they will have access to phones. They live in a world where every adult always has a phone in their hand. Why not teach them good and healthy ways of using tools and technology?

Some things are still the job of the parents, not the teachers.

One good and healthy way of using technology is to set it aside when it's not necessary and when it risks being an obstacle to accomplishing your goals. For instance, in the "real world", you should not be using your phone while driving a car, or operating a table saw, or in a movie theater, or while having an intimate dinner. "Put it on mute and put it away" is an extremely useful skill. Furthermore, children generally have less developed impulse control than adults. It's easier for them to deal with a single coarse requirement ("no phones") rather than a set of nuanced ones.

Also, to be frank, schools need to take the easy way out sometimes. They have part-time, limited custody of children across the whole spectrum of development. Even if some large subset of kids would take well to a "digital wellbeing" curriculum, they will always also have to deal with the subset of kids who could not care less.

Try teaching sometime, and then get back to us: https://jakeseliger.com/2008/12/28/laptops-students-distract....

I agree, why wasn’t I allowed to bring my swords to school, just because other kids couldn’t be bother to learn good sword etiquette?

> Why not teach them good and healthy ways of using tools and technology?

They are. Good and healthy ways of using a phone when you should be paying attention and learning is to not.

> I agree, why wasn’t I allowed to bring my swords to school, just because other kids couldn’t be bother to learn good sword etiquette?

Seems like a false equivalence, given that a sword can be used to kill someone and a phone seems very unlikely to be able to be used for that.

I might need to shave though ?

See! You lack of sword education is clearly showing. sports foils and epees, (by far the most common swords used by kids who fence) are not at all capable of killing anyone, at least no more than a common stick. If you try to thrust it through someone you’ll just break the blade. At best they can be used to poke an eye out, or create bad bruises. But the same is true if someone throwing their phone at another kid.

> Why educate good phone use when you can just impose any rules you want?

You don't start educating people on responsible alcohol use by getting them something to drink...

Phones should be banned from school. It was hard enough to focus without smart phones. I cannot imagine how it would be today.

As a parent I would probably consider giving my kid a flip phone for school hours. Maybe that’s a creative solution.

Parental controls on a schedule.

How much can you limit? Can you make it so notifications don't appear at all, or can you only limit what apps the child can open?

Personally i used an internet content filter which also enforced time limits.

the kids had a limited data plan and used the house internet. once it was off they could burn up their data for the month, but that was a choice they made.

as they became older and more mature the rules were lowered. Longer internet times, less content restrictions.

People thought i was weird at the time, but now the kids are adults they said they would do something similar to their kids as it was what they needed, not what they wanted at the time.

I had my Gigapet(Tamagotchi clone) taken from me in 5th grade even though I kept it in my locker. I don't see how phones are acceptable.

In Australia my experience is that private schools usually have a phones in locker rule (but you’d get away with it in your pocket) and public schools mostly allow phones.

Pulling out a phone in class in the schools I was in would result in it being taken where you could collect at the end of the day.

> “We talk about Stanford behavioral scientists hired by Big Tech to design the little dopamine slot machines we carry around,” Hertz said. “I tell them about my own struggles with my phone, I remind them that their eyeballs are dollar signs, and tell them it’s not their fault that they can’t stop looking at these things.”

This is interesting - I wonder who she was talking about in particular, perhaps someone from BJ Fogg's Behavior Design Lab (formerly Persuasive Technology Lab?) Though it appears that the lab, and its graduates, are generally oriented toward more positive outcomes.

Fun fact: Good grades during high school is directly positively correlated with future success and occurrence of fights. Good luck convincing teenagers to get good grades.

> Good grades during high school is directly positively correlated with ... occurrence of fights.

It takes discipline to get good grades and master your footwork!

https://archive.ph/yYLgN#selection-503.0-503.112

The path forward might be to go backward.

Are there parental controls on Apple Watch and iPhone that make it easy for a parent to limit the kid to just messaging or calling the parents during school hours? I wouldn't even want my kid to see notifications from others, since the curiosity would be distracting.

> Those who need to make emergency calls must do so from the main office, and those caught with cell phones have them confiscated, she said.

Sometimes it isn't possible to get to the main office.

Less gossip spreading like wildfire too.

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