Give Colorado kids a true break from the phone-based childhood (Opinion)

Think back to your own school days How much learning friendship and fun would have been lost if you had been allowed to bring a small television set to school and watch it all day long even at lunch and recess It may seem like an absurd question a television set at school but it is precisely the reality that students in the present day are experiencing A young girl checks her cell phone Nearly half of American teens say that they are online almost constantly Getty Images iStockphoto Since the early s U S middle and high schools have seen a startling increase in mental illness and psychological suffering among their students The acceptance of smartphones in schools has fueled cyberbullying conflict among students and had a cumulative enduring and deleterious effect on adolescents abilities to focus and apply themselves This is especially harrowing as nearly half of American teens say that they are online almost constantly This isn t just about mental medical and school safety Globally test scores have been dropping since Earlier this year new input from the National Assessment of Educational Progress indicated that reading and math scores in the U S have dropped to their lowest levels in decades Now Colorado school leaders have a chance to do something that can truly help kids This spring Gov Jared Polis signed House Bill into law requiring schools to develop and implement a agenda on candidate phone use during the school day It s a step forward and it couldn t come at a more urgent time School leaders are beginning to shape those policies now with an implementation deadline less than a year away Colorado like numerous jurisdictions in the U S is leaving the specifics to local districts This means that policies could range from put phones in your backpacks during instruction time to bell-to-bell phone-free campuses While HB is certainly a step in the right direction I urge Colorado school districts to go beyond partial limits and adopt bell-to-bell phone-free school policies like Boulder Valley School District has already done Limiting phone use only during instructional time still allows for students to rush to their phones between classes at lunch and during recess costing them valuable opportunities to connect with one another face-to-face A apprentice turns in his cell phone as he enters school in Rio de Janeiroon Feb on the first day of a national ban that restricts the use of smartphones in elementary and high schools AP Photo Bruna Prado Moreover research from the National Coaching Association revealed that of teachers in schools that allow phone use BETWEEN classes review that phones are disruptive DURING class In contrast of the several policies examined only the phone-free or away for the day procedures produced good results only of teachers in such schools stated that phones were disruptive during their classes It s only when students have - hours away from their phones that they fully turn to each other and to their teachers Otherwise teachers will continue to be responsible for enforcing phone policies when students come back from breaks which is a role they are eager to relinquish In a divided country and a world of diverse nations we have seen instruction guidelines on this subject move at astonishing speeds elsewhere Why Because parents and teachers around the world have seen the damage done to students attention learning safety and mental medical when they spend much of the school day on their phones texting scrolling and posting on social media watching videos and playing video games A survey of school principals evidenced that they were similarly alarmed by the effect of smartphones on students with stating that they were making children tired and distracted and believing it was amplifying violence and bullying in schools No wonder that in a major Unesco review considered the overwhelming evidence that excessive phone use was correlated with lower school performance and poorer mental strength and called for the ban of smartphones from schools A poster on a door at a Milwaukee high school explains the school district's ban on cell phones and pagers in The majority school districts in the state now have smartphone restrictions AP Photo Morry Gash Walk around bulk school hallways nowadays and take in the silence notice the eeriness In contrast whenever schools adopt a bell-to-bell plan the reports from teachers and administrators are inevitably the same we hear laughter in the hallways again Also bullying disciplinary problems and absenteeism decline School becomes more fun Colorado has more than residents school students Imagine the impact if over the next year districts committed to bringing conversation and laughter back to their schools hallways Social media is designed to steal the attention of kids and teens who are at pivotal stages of their mental advance Our kids are owed their attention back Our kids deserve the learning friendship and fun that we recall from our own schooling experiences And for now the one place where we can truly safeguard that is schools We need to give our kids a break from the noise and the drama We need to and Colorado can Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist and the author of The Anxious Generation