Editorial: Cellphone ban is the right approach

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It’s great news the provincial government is planning to make restrictions on cellphones “more stringent” in schools, as Brunswick News reported this week. We hope they will go the full distance and ban them outright on school property.

The complaints about cellphone impacts on student performance are well rehearsed: Fundamentally, it is impossible to focus one’s mind on any kind of study while being distracted with app notifications, texts, videos and the like.

We think the case against electronic devices is even broader, though. The phones have effectively transformed our classrooms from a private group environment to a public environment. Building the personal relationships needed to advance a young person’s education – teacher and student, as well as between students – is logically more difficult when people are not truly present in the room.

While the New Brunswick Teachers Association does not have an official position on the issue, we can’t imagine teachers would be opposed to a rule that will help them to do their job more effectively. Ideally, this will make things better for everyone in our schools.

There are arguments in favour of keeping phones around for educational purposes, as well as the idea that because of phones’ ubiquity in modern life, they should be kept.

Neither of these approaches is very convincing. Yes, phones can access educational material; but that doesn’t mean this material can only be delivered on a phone. Nor does it mean they are a more effective way to teach people.

And the omnipresence of phones outside of school is all the more reason to keep them there – away from the places whose purpose is to educate.

Cellphones won’t be harmed by being taken out of schools. But our children are likely being negatively affected by their ongoing use. Let’s, at the very least, implement a ban and then study how much it benefits students.