www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66107027

“Students must be able to concentrate there [in the classroom] and be given every opportunity to learn well. We know from scientific research that mobile phones disrupt this.”

-Robbert Dijkgraaf, Education Minister of the Netherlands

Wow, it’s finally happening that European countries such as the Netherlands, England, France and Finland are all restricting student use of cell phones. Will that ever happen in the US? I doubt it but certain states or districts might be open to considering this proposal.

Honestly, last year it was tough teaching teens who took out their cell phones whenever they saw a text from Mom or their BFF, or a new Instagram or TikTok post. When they got bored, a few started watching a video—the World Cup period was a particularly difficult time to keep some guys engaged—and I got fed up with saying “Mettez le telephone dans le sac a dos.”

So this year, I will announce the first day that cell phones must be kept out of my sight. Period. No questions. No exceptions. If they disobey this rule, every student in my class will be putting their cell phone in a pocket in a hanging jewelry organizer from Amazon. Students don’t want their cell phones confiscated even for 50 minutes, so this should keep them from thinking about reaching for their cell phone in their pocket.

Teachers deserve the undivided attention of students, and for their sake, they don’t learn while focusing on what their cell phone is telling them.