Bell-to-Bell is Better
As national test scores for students continue to decline, not to mention the mental, emotional and physical health of these same children, the research is becoming more and more clear. Phones are negatively impacting kids in myriad ways, and giving them a break from their personal devices during the school day, by way of implementing bell-to-bell policies (meaning that phones are locked away in pouches or lockers from the first bell to the last), is becoming a popular option for a growing number of schools around the globe.
The results are encouraging, with students, teachers, and administrators all reporting improvement in the aforementioned areas, after adopting bell-to-bell policies. Please read on to learn more about why keeping phones away for the day is significantly easier and more effective than trying to merely limit students’ phone use at school. The following is a list of 11 reasons to consider, followed by more in-depth explanations:
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Minimize power struggles between students and teachers/administrators.
More time for development of social and emotional skills.
More time to practice executive functioning skills.
Opportunities to practice independence (which is proving to be a great antidote to anxiety and depression)!
More room for positive influence of adult mentors, as opposed to “kids raising kids.”
Eliminate “brain drain” effects, by increasing focus and attention.
Reduce the ability to cheat.
Reduce opportunities for bullying.
Minimize the potential for addiction.
Mitigate potential added dangers during emergency situations.
Potential for a positive “ripple effect” outside of school.
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1. Minimize power struggles between students and teachers/administrators:
Forcing teachers and admin to be the phone police for students every day is exhausting for everyone involved, not to mention detrimental for relationships. Having phones out of the equation makes for a richer learning environment in numerous ways.
Anyone who has tried to separate a teenager from their smartphone knows that it can often lead to feelings of hostility and resentment. And for good reason, when one considers what is happening in their teenage brains. Frances Jensen, author of The Teenage Brain – HarperCollins explains that oxytocin, which is a feel-good hormone, is released when we engage in stimulating activities with our phones, much like the oxytocin released when a mother holds her newborn baby. The purpose of this hormone release is to strengthen the bond between mother and child, and yet, when an adolescent experiences this as they interact with their device, a similar connection is occurring. It is no wonder, then, that many teens tend to flip their lids when adults attempt to confiscate their phones.
2. More time for development of social and emotional skills:
Our brains are designed to instinctively opt for the easiest choice in any given situation. It’s understandable, then, that when faced with the choice of real-life interaction versus avoiding possible awkwardness by diving into the virtual world, students usually choose the easier alternative. This leads to them missing out on important chances to practice making conversation and developing friendships. In recent years, kids are having a harder time reading and understanding facial expressions, social cues, and developing empathy for others. These are skills that come from just being around other people, in real time, day in and day out, and they are crucial for social development in humans.
The time between classes, as well as lunchtime, are especially important opportunities for students to chat and socialize. But sadly, hallways and lunchrooms have become eerily quiet in recent years, and kids are missing the experiences needed to improve in the art of small talk and conversation. This leads to decreasing confidence, which then causes kids to escape into their phones even more. It’s a vicious cycle that we are perpetuating, as we continue to allow students to have access to their phones during the school day.
3. More time to practice executive functioning skills:
When parents and students are constantly tethered by the proverbial umbilical cord (aka. their phones), it is harder for students to have the space to think critically and problem solve situations that come up on the daily. This makes not only students more anxious, but parents as well, and it is not a helpful way for students to practice independence.
Dr. Jonathan Haidt, a renowned social psychologist and longtime professor at NYU, has written a NY Times bestseller called The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness in which he refers to cell phones as “experience blockers” for kids. This is hard to argue with, as we consider how needy and dependent many adolescents appear to be these days. And it makes perfect sense, because when teens know that they have a 24/7 connection with their parents or other caregivers, they end up learning to rely on them , rather than making the effort to become independent and rely on themselves. As this happens, kids end up forfeiting the chance to learn a number of critical skills, such as planning ahead, problem-solving, and communicating with adults. #EIE23: Jonathan Haidt: Smartphones vs. Smart Kids
4. Opportunity to practice independence (which is proving to be a great antidote to anxiety and depression!):
“We are so overprotecting children, because we are so always there to solve their problems for them. They're not developing the sense that they can solve their own problem. How can you have an internal locus of control (belief that you have control over your life) if you don't have experience controlling your own life? One thing that clinical psychologists have long known is that if you don't have a strong internal locus of control, that sets you up for anxiety and depression. No surprise. If I believe something can happen at any time, and there's nothing I can do about it, that's a very anxiety-provoking world. Things are frightening. I'm constantly anxious.” - Peter Gray, author of Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life
As phones lose their power in classrooms and schools, kids are able to more easily practice independence, and they are gaining confidence and skills in the process. Lenore Skenazy, author of Free Range Kids, and cofounder of the Let Grow project, says: “The greatest gifts we can give our children are the independence and self-reliance we had growing up.” Lenore has developed a program for schools that gives kids the freedom to do something that they have been wanting to do, on their own, no parents allowed.
https://letgrow.org/program/independence-therapy/
Introducing kids to programs such as this, while simultaneously removing phones from schools, will be exponentially more beneficial for kids as they strive to exert their independence. Anxiety’s grip on them will hopefully loosen at the same time.
5. More room for positive influence of adult mentors:
“For the first time in history, young people are turning for instruction, modeling, and guidance not to mothers, fathers, teachers, and other responsible adults but to people whom nature never intended to place in a parenting role - their own peers. They are not manageable, teachable, or maturing because they no longer take cues from adults. Instead, children are being brought up by immature persons who cannot possibly guide them to maturity. They are being brought up by each other.” - Gabor Mate & Gordon Neufeld Hold On To Your Kids,
In schools, we can help to keep the negative influences of peers to a minimum by keeping cell phones out of the equation. By allowing children to orient towards their rightful attachment figures throughout the school day, such as their teachers, administration, and coaches, we have a better chance at being able to connect with them, and therefore influence them in positive ways.
6. Eliminate “brain drain” effects, by increasing focus & attention:
Having the stamina to focus on difficult tasks, like learning, is becoming a distant memory for many. The number of kids who are being medicated, due to complaints of ADHD, is at epidemic proportions. Healthcare providers are also finding that many children and adults alike are exhibiting “ADHD-like” symptoms because of the vast array of stimulation that our brains are being exposed to on a daily, even hourly basis.
By contrast, without the near-constant distraction of phones in school, students can practice and learn how to sit with the initial discomfort of less stimulation, which over time helps them feel better, more relaxed, and more connected to the people and world around them. It also helps them learn to once again appreciate more traditional, lower-dopamine activities, such as building a puzzle, reading a book, or simply having a conversation with a friend.
Researchers at the University of Toronto have found that the mere presence of a phone in a person’s vicinity, decreases focus and the ability to concentrate on any given task. This phenomenon is being referred to as “Brain Drain”, and adds more compelling evidence that removing phones from school environments is a “no-brainer.”Brain Drain: Study Finds Presence of Phones Causes Concentration Issues | NBC4 Washington
7. Reduce the ability to cheat:
Cheating is on the rise with cell phones in classrooms. And understandably so, with most students carrying devices in their pockets that seemingly have the answer to almost any question. A national poll recently revealed that 35% of teens admit to using cell phones to cheat at school, while 65% say that they have seen classmates use their phones to cheat. What is equally concerning is that many students don’t even believe that what they are doing is cheating. Teens question why they need to bother studying for tests, when anything they might ever want to know is only a few swipes or clicks away.
There is a big difference, of course, between the ability to answer a question versus actually gaining understanding or knowledge. Authors and long-time teachers, Joe Clement and Matt Miles, provided a helpful analogy to this line of thinking in their book, Screen Schooled, in which they compared the brain to a water pipe, with water running through it that contained specks of dirt and debris (new information). If the water pipe did not already have sediment along the bottom (foundational knowledge), the new specks of dirt would have nothing to hold onto and would just continue flowing right through. In order to truly learn, we need to be able to connect new information with what we already know. In essence, learning begets learning.
8. Reduce opportunities for bullying:
Cyberbullies are rampant in the online world and they come in all shapes and sizes, both adults and minors alike. We wouldn’t think of letting people with nefarious intentions and ill-will into our homes or schools to hurt our children, and yet, that is exactly what is happening when our children go unsupervised on screens. One in six school-aged children experiences cyberbullying, finds new WHO/Europe study
We need to provide refuge for students from cyberbullying as much as we possibly can, and providing phone-free schools is certainly one step in that direction. Keeping in mind the fact that some children do not have screen time limits at home, school may be the only reprieve that these kids have from their devices, and potentially the relentless torment of cyberbullies, over the course of a typical day.
9. Minimize the potential for addiction:
Research shows that the earlier children are exposed to addictive substances and behaviors, the more likely they will be to suffer from addiction later in life. This is why we don’t introduce our children to drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes as kids. It makes sense that they wait until their brains are at least mostly developed (which doesn’t happen until at least the age of 25), before they make those kinds of choices. The folks at Meta and SnapChat know all too well that young people are their biggest source of future business, and so they target them as early as possible, hoping to get them hooked now so that they will be consumers for life.
10. Mitigate potential added dangers during emergency situations:
This seems to be the number one concern for many parents, when it comes to students being separated from their phones during the school day. While this is an understandable concern, it is worth considering how a teenager, with a still-developing prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain that controls decision-making and reason), will handle having access to a phone during an extreme emergency. During such a time, it is imperative for kids to be quiet, discreet, and focused on instructions from adults. Anecdotal evidence suggests that in such situations, the opposite occurs when students have phones in hand.
11. Potential for a positive “ripple effect” outside of school:
As we learn and model better phone habits in our schools, the hope is that these behaviors will eventually spill over into our students' families and work environments as well. Catrina Bailey, principal of Dunbar High School in Dayton, Ohio, said that after instituting a bell-to-bell phone policy in their school for the 2023-2024 school year, parents noticed the difference. Not only were students more focused on education because their cell phones weren’t always in hand at school, but they also didn’t always run right to their phones when they got home. Ohio school district bans cellphones — and sees positive results This is how real change can happen, as we do all we can to help our children and ourselves develop better boundaries with technology.