Feature

Take Away
Their
Cellphones
… So we can rewire schools
for belonging and achievement

A
FTER SUCCESSIVE SCHOOL YEARS DISRUPTED by shut-
downs, isolation, and mass experiments in remote teaching, edu-
cators returned to school in Fall 2021 to find that our classrooms
and students had changed.
In the first days of the return, perhaps, we didn’t see the full scope of
the changes. Yes, most of us knew that there would be yawning academic
gaps. Most of us understood then what the data have since clearly borne
out: despite often heroic efforts by teachers to deliver remote instruction,
the pandemic had caused a massive setback in learning and academic
progress. The costs had been levied most heavily on those who could least
afford it, and it would take months, if not years, to make up the lost time.
But at least we were all together again, even if we were all wearing masks.
We were on the road back to regular life.
As the days passed, though, a troubling reality emerged.
The students who came back to us had spent long periods away from
peers, activities, and social interactions. For many young people—and their
teachers—the weeks and months of isolation had been difficult emotionally
and psychologically. Some had lost loved ones. Many more had endured

BY D O U G L EM OV

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months in a house or apartment with nearly everything they As a parent, I experienced this firsthand. Even before
valued—sports or drama or music, not to mention moments the pandemic, I was desperately trying to manage my own
of sitting informally among friends and laughing—having children’s device usage, wary of how the time they spent on
suddenly evaporated from their lives. Even students who their phones was increasing while the time they spent read-
had escaped the worst of the pandemic were out of practice ing and doing, well, almost everything else was decreasing.
when it came to the expectations, courtesies, and give-and- We wanted to limit social media as much as possible. But
take of everyday life. Perhaps as a result of this, their social when friends plan where to meet up via Instagram messen-
skills had declined. ger or some other platform, and when the key information
Our students looked the same—or at least we presumed they for every soccer game—where, when, which uniform—is
did behind the masks—but some seemed troubled and distant. communicated via group chat, there is no choice but to join.
Some struggled to concentrate and follow directions. They Research by Twenge and others found that teenagers’
were easily frustrated and quick to give up.
Many students simply didn’t know how to get
along. The media was suddenly full of stories
of discipline problems, chronic disruptions
due to student distractibility, lack of interest,
and misbehavior in the classroom, and historic
levels of student absences. In schools where
no one had ever had to think about how to
deal with a fight, they burst into the open like
brush fires after a drought. It didn’t help that
many schools were short-staffed, with leaders
struggling just to get classes covered and buses
on the road.
The first post-pandemic year may well
have been harder than the radically dis-
rupted 18 months of rolling lockdowns and
remote learning that preceded it. The jarring

SANDY HUFFAKER / REDUX

disruptions related to Covid-19 aren’t the
whole story, however. What has happened
to our students isn’t just the impact of a
protracted, once-in-a-generation adverse
event, but the combined effects of several
large-scale, ground-shifting trends that Researcher Jean Twenge has documented the negative effects of screens and social
predate the pandemic and have reshaped media on young people, including greater rates of depression, anxiety, and isolation.
the fabric of young people’s lives. As we
look forward, their combined effects should cause us to media use roughly doubled between 2006 and 2016 across
think beyond short-term recovery and to reconsider how gender, race, and class. In competition against the smart-
we design schools and schooling. phone, the book, the idea of reading, lost significant ground.
By 2016, just 16 percent of 12th-grade students read a book
An Internet Epidemic or magazine daily. As recently as 1995, 41 percent did.
The pandemic occurred amid a broader epidemic. Long Meanwhile, social media was on the rise. By 2016, about
before Covid-19, the psychologist Jean Twenge had found three-quarters of teenagers reported using social media
spiraling levels of depression, anxiety, and isolation among almost every day (see Figure 1).
teens. “I had been studying mental health and social behavior Those trends have only accelerated. A 2019 study by
for decades and I had never seen anything like it,” Twenge Common Sense Media reported that 84 percent of American
wrote in her 2017 book iGen. teenagers own a smartphone. Parents are raising a generation
This historic downturn in the well-being of young people that is both more connected and more disconnected than
coincided almost exactly with the dramatic rise of the smart- any before.
phone and social media. More specifically, it coincided with “The smartphone brought about a planetary rewiring of
the moment when they both became universal and being human interaction. As smartphones became common, they
disconnected or an infrequent user was no longer viable. transformed peer relationships, family relationships and

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What has happened to our students isn’t just the impact of a protracted, once-
in-a-generation adverse event, but the combined effects of
several large-scale, ground-shifting trends that predate the
pandemic and have reshaped the fabric of young people’s lives.

the texture of daily life for everyone—even those who don’t to 12 and to more than 8.5 hours among teens ages 13 to 18, on
own a phone or don’t have an Instagram account,” Twenge average. These trends were even more pronounced for students
and co-author Jonathan Haidt wrote in the New York Times from low-income families, whose parents were most likely to
in 2021. “It’s harder to strike up a casual conversation in have to work in person and have fewer resources to spend on
the cafeteria or after class when everyone is staring down alternatives to screens.
at a phone. It’s harder to have a deep conversation when At the levels of use that are now common, smartphones
each party is interrupted randomly by buzzing, vibrating are catastrophic to the well-being of young people. As Twenge
notifications.” They quote the psychologist Sherry Turkle wrote, “The more time teenagers spend looking at screens, the
who notes that we are now “forever elsewhere.” more likely they are to report symptoms of depression. . . It’s
The average 12th grader in 2016, Twenge pointed out not an exaggeration to describe [this generation] as being on
in iGen, went out with friends less often than the average the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades.”
8th grader 10 years before. American teenagers were also Indeed, the data also show spikes in teenagers’ mental-health
less likely to date, drive a car, or have a job. “The roller problems during the pandemic, when just 47 percent of stu-
rink, the basketball court, the town pool, the local necking dents reported feeling connected to the adults and peers in
spot—they’ve all been replaced by virtual spaces accessed their schools. Some 44 percent of high-school students reported
through apps and the web,” Twenge wrote
in The Atlantic. These virtual meetups are
universally associated with less happiness for
young people. “Those who spend an above- Steep Growth in Social Media Use
average amount of time with their friends in (Figure 1)
person are 20 percent less likely to say they’re The share of teenagers who report using social media
unhappy than those who hang out for a below- almost every day grew sharply between 2008 and 2016,
average amount of time,” she wrote. from about half to more than three-quarters of
And that was long before Tik Tok and the students in grades 8, 10, and 12.
latest round of social media platforms care-
fully designed to ensure obsession and the
lingering anxiety that you really ought to be Student social media use, 2008-2016
85
checking your phone; before the optimization
of apps like Snapchat, with posts designed to
“almost every day”
Percentage using

75
disappear as soon as they are seen and there-
fore undiscoverable to an adult coming to a
young person’s room to see what is amiss. 65

Pandemic Effects 55
Then in March 2020, virtually everything
that might have competed with smartphones
45
suddenly disappeared. A recent Common Sense 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Media study found that children’s daily enter-
tainment usage of screens grew by 17 percent 8th 10th 12th
between 2019 and 2021—more than it had SOURCE: Twenge, Jean M. et al. (2019) “Trends in U.S. Adolescents’ Media Use, 1976
–2016: The Rise of Digital Media, the Decline of TV, and the (Near) Demise of Print.”
grown during the four years prior (see Figure Psychology of Popular Media Culture, Vol. 8, No. 4, ppg. 329 –345.
2). Overall, daily entertainment screen use in
2021 increased to 5.5 hours among tweens ages 8

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feeling sad or persistently hopeless in 2021, according to the Michael Manos, clinical director of the Center for Attention
Centers for Disease Control. School factors had a significant and Learning at Cleveland Clinic, recently told the Wall
effect on this data. Students who said they felt “connected to Street Journal. “If kids’ brains become accustomed to con-
adults and peers” at school were almost 60 percent less likely to stant changes, the brain finds it difficult to adapt to a non-
report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness than those digital activity where things don’t move quite as fast.”
who did not—some 35 percent of connected students felt that
way, compared with 55 percent who did not feel connected to The Trouble with
school. The socioemotional distress students are experiencing Task Switching
is as much a product of the cellphone epidemic as it is a product The problem with cellphones is that young people using
of the Covid-19 pandemic. them switch tasks every few seconds. Better put, young
In addition, all of that time on screens—even without social people practice switching tasks every few seconds, so they
media—degrades attention and concentration skills, making become more accustomed to states of half-attention, where
it harder to focus fully on any task and to maintain that focus. they are ever more expectant of a new stimulus every few
This is not a small thing. Attention is central to every learning seconds. When students encounter a sentence or an idea
task and the quality of attention paid by learners shapes the that requires slow, focused analysis, their minds are already
outcome of learning endeavors. The more rigorous the task, glancing around for something new and more entertaining.
the more it requires what experts call selective or directed Though all of us are at risk of this type of restlessness,
attention. To learn well, you must be able to maintain self- young people are especially susceptible. The region of the
discipline about where you direct your attention. brain that exerts impulse control and self-discipline, the pre-
“Directed attention is the ability to inhibit distractions frontal cortex, isn’t fully developed until age 25. Any time
and sustain attention and to shift attention appropriately,” young people are on a screen, they are in an environment
where they are habituated to states of low attention
and constant task switching. In 2017, a study found
that undergraduates, who are more cerebrally mature
Increase in Entertainment than K–12 students and therefore have stronger
Screen Use Accelerated impulse control, “switched to a new task on average
During the Pandemic (Figure 2) every 19 seconds when they were online.”
In addition, the brain rewires itself constantly
Students’ entertainment screen use grew quickly
based on to how it functions. This idea is known
during the Covid-19 pandemic. Screen use increased
as neuroplasticity. The more time young people
by 17 percent, on average, from 2019 to 2021
spend in constant half-attentive task switching, the
—more than it had during the prior four years.
harder it becomes for them to maintain the capacity
for sustained periods of intense concentration. A
Total entertainment screen use per day brain habituated to being bombarded by constant
(average) stimuli rewires accordingly, losing impulse control.
9
8:39 The mere presence of our phones socializes us to
8 fracture our own attention. After a time, the dis-
7:22
tractedness is within us.
7 6:40
“If you want kids to pay attention, they need to
Hours

6 5:33 practice paying attention,” is how Dr. John S. Hutton,

4:36 4:44 a pediatrician and director of the Reading and
5
Literacy Discovery Center at Cincinnati Children’s
4 Hospital Medical Center, put it in a recent Wall Street
Journal article.
3
2015 2019 2021
There is, in other words, a clear post-pandemic
Teens
imperative for schools. The first step in responding to
Tweens
the dual crisis of learning and well-being is to set and
NOTE: Tweens refers to students ages 8-12; Teens refers enforce cell-phone restrictions. An institution with the
to students ages 13-18.
dual purpose of fostering students’ learning and well-
SOURCE: Rideout, V., Peebles, A., Mann, S., & Robb, M. B. (2022). Common Sense
census: Media use by tweens and teens, 2021. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense. being cannot ignore an intruder that actively erodes
a young mind’s ability to focus and sustain attention
and also magnifies anxiety, loneliness, and depression.

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The socioemotional distress students are experiencing is as much a product

of the cellphone epidemic as it is a product of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cellphones must be turned off and put away when students Vanessa paused and glanced at her notes. “Um, I’d like to
walk through school doors. Period. change my answer,” she said playfully, without a trace of self-
But cellphone restrictions are only part of the equation. consciousness. Then she laughed, and her classmates laughed
Schools themselves will also require rewiring. with her. The moment was beautiful because it was lit by the
How do we do that? The answer isn’t simple. My col- warm glow of belonging. And that was not accidental.
leagues at Uncommon Schools Denarius Frazier, Hilary Consider the image below: Vanessa is speaking as her
Lewis, and Darryl Williams, and I have written a book classmates listen and offer affirming gazes. Their eyes are
describing actions we think schools should consider. Here’s turned to Vanessa to show encouragement and support. Their
a road map of some of the things we think will be necessary. expressions communicate psychological safety, reassurance,
and belonging. In fact, it’s hard to put into words just how
Rewiring Classrooms much their glances are communicating—and each one is a
for Connectedness little different—but these wordless expressions are as critical
Extracurricular activities and social and emotional learn- to shaping the moment as Vanessa’s own character and humil-
ing programs can be significant factors in shaping students’ ity. This interaction fosters and protects a space in which her
experiences. But we should also recognize that the classroom bravery, humor, and openness can emerge. A space where she
is the single most important space when it comes to shap- feels important.
ing students’ sense of connectedness to school. Out of a How someone acts in a group setting is shaped as much by
typical school day, at least five or six hours will be spent in the audience and the social norms that the speaker perceives
classrooms—the overwhelming majority of students’ time. as it is by internal factors. And here those perceptions are not
If classroom practices do little to instill a sense of belonging, accidental. Frazier has socialized his students to “track”—or
students will feel a weak connection to the primary purpose actively look at—the speaker and to endeavor to keep their
of school. body language and nonverbal cues positive. In Teach Like a
But just as important, building classrooms to maximize Champion 3.0, I call that technique Habits of Attention. It is
belonging cannot come at the expense of academic achieve- a small but critical aspect of how classrooms can maximize
ment. We are in the midst of a learning crisis of historic belonging and achievement.
proportions too. Students’ lack of progress in science, math, Students also validated each other in other ways through-
and reading, their reduced knowledge of history, their less- out the lesson. When a young woman named Folusho joined
ened exposure to the arts—these will
have lifelong costs. Teaching needs to
be better, not diluted. Classrooms need
to maximize belonging and learning. It
can’t be one or the other.
Happily, we think this is eminently
possible. I’m thinking of a math class
taught by my co-author Denarius
Frazier, the principal of Uncommon
Collegiate Charter High School in
Brooklyn, N.Y. During a discussion
about trigonometry, two dozen students
engaged vigorously and energetically
with one another. That is, until the
beautiful moment when a student
named Vanessa, who had been speak-
ing authoritatively about her solution
to the problem, suddenly realized that
she had confused reciprocal and inverse
functions—and that her solution is At Uncommon Collegiate Charter High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., students learn to use body
dead wrong. language and positive nonverbal cues called “Habits of Attention” to support one another.

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the discussion, she started by saying, “Ok, I agree with rewiring of social norms to maximize positive outcomes. Some
Vanessa…” So often, after a student speaks in class, no one skeptics label these sorts of techniques coercive or controlling,
other than the teacher responds or communicates that the but it’s hard to watch Frazier and his students and hold on to
statement was important. But when a peer’s comment begins, those suspicions. Engineering the classroom to ensure positive
“I agree with…” it says implicitly that what my classmate just peer-to-peer norms is about honoring young people and creat-
said is important. Such validation makes it more likely that ing an environment that not only maximizes their learning but
students feel supported and successful, and that the speaker also their belonging—the pervading senses that school is for me
will contribute to the discussion again. and I am successful here. It’s a rewiring of the classroom that
Again, this is not a coincidence. Frazier has taught his requires hard work and doggedness on the part of the teacher.
students to use phrases like that and weave their comments But it is nothing less than students deserve.
together, so their ideas are connected and those who have
contributed feel the importance of their contributions. That Rewiring Schools for Belonging
technique is called Habits of Discussion. Along with Habits of Rewiring a school for belonging involves rethinking many
Attention, it helps connect and validate students as they learn. of the things we do, such as extracurricular activities. Nashville
In addition, as Folusho was talking, her classmates began Classical Charter School provides an example of how schools
snapping their fingers. In Frazier’s classroom, that means “I might do this. In 2021, school leaders were reconsidering how
agree” or “I support you.” It was a powerful dose of positive its programs could intentionally build a sense of connected-
feedback at the precise moment when she, like almost anyone ness and belonging among students. Head of School Charlie
speaking aloud to a group of people, was most likely to momen- Friedman and his colleagues decided to dramatically expand
tarily wonder, “Am I making sense at all? Do I sound stupid?” after-school sports programs, to allow students to explore
Folusho suddenly got a supportive response—the snapping told their identities, build relationships with trusted adults, and
her, “You’re doing great! You’re family. Let’s go!” perform in front of a crowd.
Again, that was deliberately woven into the fabric of the Nashville Classical extended tryout periods, to maximize
students’ opportunities feel like part of a
team. Leaders also offered stipends for
coaching and encouraged their best com-
munity builders to coach, by explicitly valu-
ing expertise at culture building alongside
expertise at the sport. The school engaged
audiences by inviting families to vote on
a mascot and created an engaging game-
day experience with a cheerleading squad,
songs, and chants. This attracted a sub-
stantial audience, so student-athletes could
compete in front of more people and fans
could build community through gathering
REUTERS / ZACHARY FAGENSON

and cheering together.

It’s important to have high-quality extra-
curriculars that aren’t based on years of
prior experience. It’s hard for a student to
decide in grade 8 that they would really
like to be a part of the basketball team if
Schools can foster student connections by providing open-ended opportunities for young they haven’t already spent years playing.
people to engage. Activities might include playing games, such as chess, between classes. But that’s not true of the debate team or the
Spanish club. Those activities should be as
classroom. The technique, called Props, establishes procedures well run as any others, rather than a lonely space with obliga-
for students to recognize when their classmates are doing well tory supervision where the connections are peripheral at best.
and send affirming signals without disrupting class. Schoolwide rituals are also important to fostering a sense
All three techniques show how a teacher like Frazier can of belonging. For example, Frazier’s school has a regular
intentionally establish a culture that reinforces both academic meeting circle where the entire school is present. Students
endeavor and a much stronger sense of belonging. And though are publicly honored for their academic excellence or for
it looks organic, there’s nothing natural about it. It’s a deliberate being positive members of the school community.

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The pull of smartphones and social media apps designed to distract

is bound to undermine any expression of support, after-school sport,
or card table. The single most important thing schools can
do is to restrict cellphone access for large parts of the school day.

Character education and social and emotional learning after-school sport, or card table. The single most important
programs can also play a role. But my advice is to build a thing schools can do is to restrict cellphone access for large
few priorities into the fabric of the school rather than buy parts of the school day. This doesn’t mean banning phones, it
a program to use in an isolated manner. Positive character just means setting rules. These can take different forms, like
traits should be “caught, sought, and taught,” according to my setting up cellphone lockers at the main entrance, requiring
co-author Hilary Lewis. Gratitude is a great example. When students to use cellphone-collection baskets at the classroom
students make a habit of concretely expressing gratitude to door, or limiting use to cellphone-approved zones in the
other people in the school community,
it confers mutual benefits. Expressions
of gratitude make the recipients feel more
connected while also confering status on
the giver, because their appreciation is a
thing worthy of sharing deliberately.
And, as Shawn Achor explains in
his book The Happiness Advantage,
expressing gratitude regularly has the
effect of calling students’ attention to
its presence. Repetitive thinking causes
a “cognitive afterimage” where we con-
tinue to see whatever it is we’re thinking
about, even when we’ve shifted focus.
In other words, if you continually share
and expect to be sharing examples of
things you are grateful for, you start
looking for them. You begin scanning

MATTHEW HEALEY / ZONE

the world for examples of good things
to appreciate and notice more of the
good that surrounds you. Gratitude is
a well-being builder.
Open-ended opportunities to relax
and connect outside of the classroom In Gerry Padilla’s Spanish classes at Marlborough High School in Massachusetts, students
also foster connectedness and belong- leave devices in a “cell phone hotel.” Restricting phone access doesn’t have to mean a ban.
ing. At Cardiff High School in Wales, for
example, school leaders filled a common area with games school building. My personal preference is a simple policy:
that are easy to join. They added chess boards, card tables You can have your cellphone in your bag, but it must be
with decks of cards, and even a ping pong table to create turned off and cannot be visible during the school day. Not
opportunities for engaging, positive social interaction in during lunch, not in the hall, not anywhere until after the last
between classes. bell rings. If there’s an emergency and you need to contact
your parents, you may use it in the main office. That’s it.
Saying No to Cellphones Schools must create blocks of time when students can
These innovations can be powerful—but not on their own. work in a manner that allows them to rebuild their atten-
The pull of smartphones and social media apps designed to tional skills and experience the full value of connected social
distract is bound to undermine any expression of support, interaction. They must also protect students’ opportunities

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to socialize with one another. Allowing students to use their there is no difference between young people and adults, and
phones as classroom tools (for quick research or as calcula- second, that there is no difference between the people who
tors, for example), or to leave them turned on (but with run a school—and therefore are responsible to stakeholders
silent haptic notifications that distract nonetheless), or to for outcomes—and the young people who attend the school.
turn them on during lunch or other learning breaks keeps Both are mistaken. The purpose of a school is to give young
them connected to their devices and disconnected from people the knowledge and skills they require to lead success-
one another. ful lives. This always involves an exercise of social contract.
It won’t be easy, but it can be done. France has done it. We collectively give up something small as individuals and
The state of Victoria in Australia has done it. Some American receive something valuable and rare in return as a group. It
public schools and districts have done it, in Missouri, is impossible to run a school without this sort of give-and-
Pennsylvania, Maine, and New York. take. Suggesting that we give students “freedom” to use cell
These bans are often followed by remarkable and instan- phones whenever they want is trading valuable and enduring
taneous change. “It has transformed the school. Social time freedom that accrues later for a self-destructive indulgence
is spent talking to friends,” a teacher from Australia told my in the present.
colleagues and me. “It is so nice walking around the yard see- The argument that “schools should teach young people
ing students actually interacting again, and no distractions the skill of managing technology” is patently unrealistic.

The argument that “schools should teach young people the skill of managing
technology” is patently unrealistic. Schools are not designed to address,
much less unravel, psychological dependence on portable supercomputers.

during class,” said another. Schools are not designed to address, much less unravel,
The change, teachers told us, was quick—so long as you psychological dependence on portable supercomputers
could get the adults to follow through. That is, if the rule was designed to disrupt and hold our attention. Teachers already
consistent and enforced, then students adapted quickly and have a daunting list of educational priorities. They are not
were happy, even if they fought it at first. If the ban didn’t trained counselors, and the school counselors on staff are
work, the problem was usually that some of the adults didn’t in woefully short supply.
follow through. “Consistent enforcement from all = key,” one It’s magical thinking to propose that an epidemic that
teacher explained in a note. “Can’t be ‘the cool teacher’.” The has doubled rates of mental health issues and changed every
problem, of course, is that there’s a strong incentive to be aspect of social interaction among millions of people is going
“the cool teacher,” so schools must spend time making sure to go away when a teacher says, “Guys, always use good
teachers understand the reasons for the rule and holding them judgment with your phones.” We’re not really wrestling with
accountable for supporting it. the problem if our response assumes that the average teacher,
School and district leaders should be prepared for doubts, via a few pithy lessons, can battle a device that has addicted
skepticism, and pushback. We’ve seen this at the state level a generation into submission.
already. In 2019, lawmakers in four states proposed legisla- Restriction is a far better strategy. These efforts won’t be
tion to ban cellphones in school. But the bills, in Arizona, simple to execute, but the alternative is simply too damaging
Maine, Maryland, and Utah, failed to advance. A rule that to students’ learning and well-being. Keep cellphones turned
barred students from bringing cellphones into New York off and out of sight during the school day—and give students
City public schools was ended in 2015, because then-Mayor and educators a fighting chance to focus, reconnect, and build
Bill DeBlasio said “parents should be able to call or text school cultures that nurture belonging and academic success.
their kids,” though individual schools may choose to limit
phone access. Doug Lemov, author of the Teach Like a Champion books, is
Two comments I often hear: “it’s an infringement on young a managing director of Uncommon Schools and leads its Teach
people’s freedom” and “the role of schools is to teach young Like a Champion team, designing and implementing teacher
people to make better choices. We should talk to them about training based on the study of high-performing teachers. He is a
cell phones, not restrict them.” co-author of the forthcoming book Reconnect, from which this
The first response makes two assumptions: first, that essay is adapted.

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