Putting Phones in their Place
At our opening meetings in August, BUA’s faculty and staff voted to adopt a smartphone policy designed to support our students and preserve the community we cherish. In broad strokes, 9th and 10th-graders are now asked to deposit smartphones in a cabinet by the front desk when they arrive at school in the morning. 11th and 12th graders are welcome to keep their smartphones with them in the BUA building, but to limit their use to the student common areas and to school-related purposes.
We have now completed three weeks with the new system. And the impact has been dramatic. Class conversations are spilling into the hallways after the bell, with no text messages or social media posts competing for attention. Lunch tables buzz with conversation. Board games have proliferated in the Student Commons. These early results affirm what I heard from my listening sessions with students before the change: smartphones in the hands of school-aged students – even unusually mature, independent ones – interfere with the kinds of in-person, face-to-face exchanges that lie at the heart of our school.
The other thing I’ve observed is how readily our students embraced the new system. Even on the first day, 9th and 10th graders streamed through the doors, dropped off their phones, and headed off to class – all without complaint or fanfare. The older students, I believe in part out of respect for the younger students, keep their phones out of sight. To be fair, there is not a line of students outside my office door waiting to thank me and my colleagues for the new rules. But they understand the rationale and are doing their part – and I’m really grateful.
There is certainly more work to do. I’m excited to partner with the faculty and students over the coming months to gather feedback, navigate obstacles, and make common-sense tweaks. But, for now, it’s clear that we are on the right track.