Classroom changes since my own teaching days make me believe phones should be banned in schools
A ban on devices should be in place during lessons and schools should be supported in implementing it
As reported this week by The Scotsman, education is likely to be a key battleground in this year’s Scottish Parliament elections. That is as it should be. Education is entirely devolved, therefore impossible for the SNP government to pass the buck to Westminster over.
A hot topic is predicted to be the question of whether mobile phones should be banned from classrooms. While individual schools and local authorities are ultimately responsible for that, political leadership will be necessary.
Though Scotland has an entirely separate curriculum from the rest of the UK, there’s a similar expectation here – as elsewhere - that schools should be expected to solve social problems. This includes issues for which politicians and wider culture have no real answers, or on which they can be wholly contradictory.
Whether it’s the rise in misogyny, obesity, or mental health issues in our young people, all three of which are often blamed on too much screentime, social media addiction, and online radicalisation, ‘chuck it on the curriculum and pass the buck to teachers,’ often feels the inadequate response from policy-makers.
Taking away kids’ phones can sometimes feel hypocritical, given adults often struggle to function without our own. Therein, I’d argue, lies a wider social problem. But, despite that, it’s my strong conviction, in accordance with voices across the political spectrum, these devices must be banned during lessons, with schools supported to implement this.
Inexpensive and obvious move
It is a relatively inexpensive, obvious move for two important reasons: classroom management and improved teachers’ well-being, and pupils’ experiencing lessons free of a highly addictive distraction. It’s something many countries – notably Australia – have been grappling with, as the impact of these technologies on young people are finally being acknowledged.
As a former teacher, I know the job is tough, but extremely rewarding. It is also very misunderstood. For pupils, you were born in the classroom, cause shock and horror if encountered outwith that space, and, if you’re managing your difficult role as well as you can, you’ll be seen as a bit of a benevolent dictator, while hopefully being approachable if a pupil has genuine problems.
Day-to-day, you’ll be expected to command a classroom of up to 30 pupils, with all their hormonal baggage and lunchbreak dramas; at secondary school, you’ll be part-entertainer, part sage, part lion-tamer, as you try to impart your subject-knowledge about the voting system, or algebra, or the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy.
Then, you spy Owen-at-the-back-of-the-class obviously on his phone, nestled under his desk. Laila two rows back cries out ‘Sorry Miss!’ as hers ding-dings a notification too. ‘It’s my Mum, honest, sorry, sorry!’ Giggles abound. And sometimes it is her mother, in truth.
As a teacher, you have to pick your battles. ‘Off, and away,’ you say quietly to Laila, approaching the bowed, oblivious head of young Owen. You continue imparting your knowledge, not pausing for breath as you extend a hand above Owen’s desk.
You might get an ‘Aw, Miss….!’ as he nevertheless hands it over. All this is done without raising your voice, putting the kid out of class for breaking the rules, causing unnecessary disruption to your flow, and your lesson continues.
That’s how it was, back when I was teaching full-time 12 years ago. Phones were an increasing annoyance, but with no real whole-school policy, and no general consensus about the issue, it was left to teacher skill, and general classroom management how one dealt with it.
Pupils knew they weren’t allowed to use phones in class. But it was generally seen as the equivalent of chewing bubble gum in the illicit, bad behaviour stakes. However, having seen the changes in phone use this last decade, that’s no longer the case.
Break-time video uploads
The problem goes far beyond young people chancing their luck to send a text, and smartphones are far more common than in my teaching days. Laila’s interrupting ‘ping’ has been replaced with the accidental click on loud TikTok videos; teens pose and preen at break-times to make their own videos, uploading them with little care, it seems, for the dangers.
A difficulty in implementation, however, will be the extensive use of laptops, increased screentime in lessons generally, and the curricular insistence on ‘research projects’ - of which I’ve insufficient space to complain at length here, though I could, for both pedagogical and practical reasons. The fact is, sometimes pupils’ are quite justified in insisting they must use their phones in class.
Scenario: the library is booked out, the school laptops are whirring, won’t load, and pupils need to check their website sources. You can have them sit there looking at the little circle of ‘Please Wait’ death on the school’s ancient machines, or let them whip out their phone and do what the assessment criteria demands. The assessment, of course, is on Microsoft Teams, where it has been since Covid days, when the pandemic forced teachers to centralise everything and make it digitally accessible.
My support for the parties pushing for a ban isn’t simply for the sake of behaviour management, an easier life for teachers, or to encourage young people away from addictive sites like TikTok - though all are good enough reasons. It’s not even because I think a ban could well contribute to addressing the trio of social ills we know ail teenagers: misogyny, obesity, ill mental health, though it could. A rethink in schools about the ubiquity of screen-based assessments will be necessary too.
But my main reason for supporting a ban is because I don’t think wider society has even begun to understand what these technologies have done to any of us. Adults must reckon with that too, as we should have before allowing them in schools in the first place.
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