We are almost halfway through the year, and graduation is less than five months away. Academic success is a must for graduation and earning credits, and the students will need to be engaged in their classes. In 2023 where “the vast majority of teens have access to digital devices, such as smartphones (95%),” controlling phone usage in class is a must for schools in a developed country to function; hence, there is a need for a phone policy that regulates the use of phones during class. Starting this academic year the LSHS required students to have phones “off and away until I say”, where “I” is the teacher’s to limit unnecessary usage that distracts the students from academic work.
Looking through the year, I was able to see that phone usage varies between classes. The main reason I think it differs is because of the intensity of the classes. Junior Levi Dela Rosa has the least amount of people using their phones in his AP Computer Science class, and he thinks that the “Difference between if the class is AP or not” is one big factor that changes the number of people on their phones not doing what they are supposed to do. I think that the intensity of the class correlates to the number of people who have the right mindset when coming to class and the more intense the class is, the less chance for students to be on their phones unnecessarily.
My AP Physics class requires focus in class every day so that we don’t miss out on important topics. Students are tested in school with tests that correlate to the AP test. Students can also earn college credit in an AP class and help students earn a college degree more quickly. In my previous school, my AP Calculus teacher would move quickly on topics, so if anyone in that class had the time to use their phone, they would use that time to focus on whatever rocket science my calc teacher was talking about.
When students choose to take a hard class, it seems to filter out students who use their phones during class because they have set their academics as their priority. Throughout the year, Dela Rosa noticed that all of his teachers had a similar take on phone usage where the teachers would give warnings and then take them away if the student used their phones after the warning. He still sees some students use their phones after they get a warning.
“If you want to stop the problem, right, then cut it off at the source,” Dela Rosa said.
Dela Rosa suggested a one warning per semester policy, where if a student uses their phone after a warning every semester, there will be no more warnings, which leads to direct confiscation of the phone once seen. This seems like a good idea if the teachers communicated their expectation at the beginning of the year and that they will have no mercy for the people who don’t care about the class.
Phone control in schools doesn’t seem to have a perfect solution; otherwise, all the schools would be implementing them. Whether a student is done with all their work, or a serious call from a parent is about to come, it is hard to tell the difference if they aren’t facing their education properly. I believe that it is the relationship between the students, how important the class is for the student, and if the student truly values their own and the teacher’s time in an educational environment that makes a phone regulation class to class as smooth and stress-free as possible.
