COLUMN: Think Again – Provincial cell phone ban makes sense

The Manitoba government is banning cell phones in schools. Starting next month, K-8 students will not be allowed to use cell phones at all during school hours. High school students may use phones during breaks and lunch hour, but not during class time.

This announcement comes not a moment too soon. That’s because there is overwhelming evidence that cell phones are an unwelcome distraction. It’s hard for students to pay attention in class when they are distracted by never-ending message notifications.

Even more importantly, excessive social media use is leading to increased mental health problems for young people. That’s not just my observation as a teacher, but the argument made by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt in his book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Illness.

In Haidt’s view, social media is so harmful that parents shouldn’t give smartphones to their children until they are at least 16 years old. If younger children need a phone for security reasons, they should receive a flip phone instead. That way they won’t be able to use their phones to access social media.

While Manitoba’s cell phone ban is welcome news, the government should have acted much sooner. British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia have already announced significant restrictions on the use of cell phones in schools. No doubt the other provinces will soon follow suit.

In the absence of provincial leadership, some Manitoba school divisions had already implemented bans of their own. For example, the Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine banned cell phones in its schools last year. The results were overwhelmingly positive.

Similarly, Hanover School Division announced its own ban for the upcoming year, largely based on a successful pilot project in Stoneybrook Middle School, where cell phones were banned last year. Not only did students have an easier time paying attention in class, but there were also fewer discipline referrals to the principal’s office.

One of the benefits of a province-wide cell phone ban is it takes away the need for individual teachers to explain why cell phones aren’t allowed in their classes. They can focus instead on teaching. While teachers will still be responsible for enforcement, they can do so knowing that the province stands behind them if they need to take a student’s phone away.

Obviously, there will be some limited exceptions. Students who need cell phones for medical reasons, such as monitoring blood sugar levels, will still be allowed to use them. However, if these exceptions are carefully defined and limited in scope, they should not affect the universal nature of the ban.

Interestingly, not everyone is in favour of banning cell phones from schools. Earlier this year, the Manitoba Association of Education Technology Leaders (MAETL) sent a letter to the education minister encouraging him to not declare a universal ban. Rather, MAETL wants the province to develop guidelines that help teachers use technology more effectively as a learning tool.

However, the ship has already sailed on this issue. After years of observing the impact of cell phones, most teachers and parents agree that cell phones do more harm than good in classrooms. These harms clearly outweigh any limited learning benefits.

As for the argument that schools need to teach digital literacy, a key aspect of digital literacy is recognizing that there are some places where cell phones just don’t belong. If we believe that teachers have something useful to teach students, then we should do everything we can to remove unnecessary distractions from schools.

Manitoba’s cell phone ban makes sense. Hopefully, the province holds firm with this new direction.

Michael Zwaagstra is a high school teacher and deputy mayor of Steinbach. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.