We’re pleased to hear that Durango School District 9-R has implemented a mandate to end cellphone use in the classrooms at Durango High School. At the start of class, students must put their phone into one of a group of cloth pockets that hangs on a wall.
Our initial enthusiasm for the no-cellphone environment was driven by how difficult it must be for a teacher to hold students’ attention when cellphones are buzzing or beeping, and texts are returned. Delivering academic content in ways that results in it being absorbed is challenging enough without competition from cellphones. So, too, for students to concentrate of the content at hand, something that’s required in the classroom.
DHS joins Montezuma-Cortez High School in its ban, although the latter goes further: no cellphones out of a backpack in hallways or in bathrooms, as well. And, they both follow (by some time!) to Mountain Middle School, a charter school in Durango, which said no cellphones 12 years ago.
But there is more than one reason in play, we’ve learned. Cellphones can be used to bully – some say that’s largely how bullying is delivered – and in some cases, perhaps a few, but significant, they are used to arrange for drug purchases and for fighting.
For Jon Hoerl, DHS principal, as the Herald reported, it was important to eliminate a hindrance to healthy in-person student conversation and contact, which can take place after a class ends. And, we might suggest, that extends to student-teacher conversations that also were not taking place when a cellphone was in hand.
The negatives of school cellphone usage apparently has been on the mind of Phil Weiser, Colorado’s attorney general, as he’s just announced a sizable amount of grant funding for correction. Titled the Smartphone Challenge Initiative, his office is offering a $50,000 amount to aid in implementing a school policy that reduces cellphone usage. Applications will be taken after the first of the year, and his office is expecting – no, encouraging – a variety of program ideas. It expects there will be different components and degrees of attack. Grant acceptance is tied to recording the office’s survey data, which will be used to prepare a list of best practices for the future.
The grant money is part of the state’s $31.7 million settlement with Juul Labs for the negative impacts of vaping. Chalkbeat, which covers educational goings-on in multiple states, has reported on this initiative, including that the number of grants has yet to be determined. The Juul Lab’s penalty is also being used to discourage vaping.
Cellphone usage also affects adult gatherings, doesn’t it? Pay attention to the speaker, or the conversation at your table, not your phone.
A good decision by schools and school districts. Well done.
