Teacher bans cellphones in class — Says face-to-face teaching crucial to learning

“You cannot learn at the same time you are looking at other information.”

That’s the long and short of why Shelter Island School social studies teacher Peter Miedema has implemented a no-cellphone policy in his humanities classes.

At the start of the school term, when he considered what he would like to change that would benefit students, no phones in class came into focus.

Although the district was able to have in-person classes through much of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Miedema learned in the early days when lessons were taught virtually how difficult it was to build rapport with students without being able to look one another in the eyes.

Competing with their attention to their cellphones was frustrating. Without face-to-face communication, there’s a critical element missing in teaching, Mr. Miedema said adding, “Things don’t stick when you’re not paying attention.”

“I didn’t become a teacher to be a police officer,” he said about the pressure to stop  students from paying more attention to him than to whatever was attracting them to the screens in their hands.

“I’m not judging others, but I’m responsible for teaching the kids. I’m not a rules guy,” he said.

But one rule he decided he had to require this year was collecting cellphones as students entered the room and return them when the class ended.

Colleague Walter Brigham, math teacher and the district’s information technology coordinator, several years ago said he regarded the use of cellphones as useful in the classroom. But with all the advancements the district has made in technology, he said last week that’s no longer the case.

Junior Leo Dougherty said he doesn’t think the response to the ban has been overly positive, but he doesn’t think most of his fellow students are troubled by not having access to their phones through one class.

 Eighth grader Jackson Rohrei said, “Nobody was really happy about it.” He prefers Mr. Brigham’s policy that it can be used if necessary. In years past, some teachers would take phones away from students if they found them constantly looking at their phones, he said.

“There’s a bit of trust too,” Leo said, preferring a policy that is not as strict as Mr. Miedema’s.

Mr. Miedema said he’s had no complaints from parents since his policy went in at the start of the school year.

In the past, some parents in districts that considered banning cellphone use during classes complained it would interfere with their ability to reach their children.

In pre cellphone days, parents would simply call the school and if communication was necessary, the student would be brought to the office to speak by phone with a parent or in a more serious situation, a parent could come to the school to take a student out of class.

Raising children in the smartphone age: How to keep them safe from cyber snares 

By Ambrose Clancy

Is parenting more difficult in the digital age? Many would say “yes,” emphatically, citing media coming at warp speed toward children who are too young to differentiate between the good, the bad and the extremely ugly.

But some would argue that being a good parent never changes; new challenges arise with new eras, as they always have, and are met with patience, focus, discipline and love.

With the media landscape continually widening and smartphones in almost every hand, many parents are looking seriously at data and listening to professionals who work with families.

The Pew Research Center reported 60% of children had been exposed to cellphones before the age of 5, and a third of all respondents said their children were introduced to phones before the age of 2.

The difficulty in deciding to familiarize a child with a cellphone is that it’s not all bad, according to a study done by Concordia University of Nebraska.

The university’s research found benefits, including that smartphones teach children an understanding of how the modern world operates, allowing them to become technologically literate, a necessity to succeed now and in the future.

Dr. Ryan Sultan, M.D., a board-certified adult and pediatric psychiatrist, and an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, whose family has been on  Shelter Island for over 60 years, told the Reporter that cellphone use “is a common discussion I have with parents.”

Praising the benefits a phone provides as an educational tool, Dr. Sultan also noted that the use can become “highly addictive. This is not by accident. To maximize profits, big tech companies intentionally designed these devices to keep us engaged with them. Pulling youth away from them is challenging.”

Addiction may be defined in different ways but research backs up Dr. Sultan’s assertion. According to statistics compiled by IDC Digital, the average cellphone user checks the device about 63 times a day. Nine out of ten of us are on the phone an hour before going to sleep, and 70% are looking at the phone within five minutes of waking.

And the Pew Center reported on a study that found a quarter of teenagers surveyed were “almost constantly online.”

Dr. Sultan said that for certain youngsters, clicking onto social media can have negative developmental effects. “That said, it’s very difficult to go backwards and add restrictions to your youth’s use of a smart phone,” he added. “Best to start off on the right foot.”

He agrees with teacher Peter Miedma’s ban on cellphones in classes he teaches. It’s a reasonable restriction, the doctor said, to help students focus on what’s immediately important, such as “paying attention, asking questions, taking notes, thinking about their course work. Having their phones out is a major distraction.”

Dr. Sultan added that if a parent has an “urgent reason” to get in touch with their child, they can call the school, or wait to make a call or text between classes.

Understanding the world a child inhabits is key to making decisions. “Those of us who grew up in a pre-digital age or early digital age, struggle to see how youth are so attached to their devices,” Dr. Sultan said. “We developed and were socialized to build non-digital lives and relationships. American youth born in the last 15 to 20 years have little or no concept of a non-device-based world. Their whole lives — friendships, school, personal interests — all exist on their smart device.”

Dr. Sultan’s recommendations include:

• No screen time at all in first few years of life (TV, tablets, smartphones, etc.). After that, parents should drag their feet as long as possible before giving their child a device. But understand that by their teen years, it becomes difficult to not give your child a device, since our culture can demand it for practical reasons  — scheduling, for example.

• When a youth does get a device, establish clear limits. Don’t give them free rein.

• Smart phones log what you are doing; how often you pick it up; how much time you spend on different applications. Meet with your children and together look at their activity on their phone. Help them be mindful of how much time they’re spending on it and what they’re looking at. 

• Set an automatic down time so the phone doesn’t work after a certain time.

Finally, Dr. Sultan said, setting a good example, like every other aspect of child raising, is paramount. “Parents need to model healthy behavior with their smart devices,” he said. “For example, when you’re with your child, be present with them, rather than on your device.”

For more information on Dr. Sultan and his practice, go to www.integrativepsych.nyc