Dear Express Staff
In your last issue, the Staff Opinion piece centered around the new board policy on cell phone usage. There were two passages that stood out that I could not ignore.
The first was the statement, “we were never taught how to properly use our phones in school.” What does this request look like for a student? What do you want teachers to do beyond what we already have for years – we started with a stoplight, then we added cell phone caddies, and now a board policy and at every step of the way, students resisted. I know in my classroom, I speak to the reality that students cannot pay attention to their phone, music and me at the same time, but year after year, students don’t change.
The way I understand your opinion is that the board policy has gone too far too fast, but you have to understand that educators have been fighting this fight for over ten years. We have witnessed the fall of attention in the classroom, and no amount of “teaching” about how to use your cell phone has helped. BUT, if you want to learn “the why” this policy is necessary, I shall address that as a science teacher.
You have a brain. This brain develops in chunks. Your “reptilian” brain is the back part. It helps you survive. That develops first. Later, the middle part of your cerebrum (top mushy part) develops as you learn new things. The final part to fully develop is your prefrontal cortex. This is right behind your forehead. Your prefrontal cortex is what makes humans special compared to other primates. This is your intelligence part, and it is still forming. If you look at an adult brain, there are lots of gyre (folds) in the brain – this aligns with knowledge acquired and passage of time. In the adolescent brain there are not as many – and specifically, you are missing the part of the brain that tells you right from wrong.
Right now, your brain is pruning parts it doesn’t need and making stronger connections to things you do. You are LEARNING right from wrong by living life, being told stop or go. This time in your life is vital for identity and growth and survival. All of this is a biological fact, it’s not your fault, but that’s what makes it our job to tell you no, and that’s the reason for the policy.
The second passage I noticed was a complaint that teachers were taught why cell phones are not healthy but you weren’t, so here you go. In addition to the wiring of your adolescent brain as described above, there is the part that controls speech and language comprehension called Wernicke’s area. The key word in that Google definition is comprehension. This means to take in language of sound or text, process, interpret, and figure out what is being said.
The words that are coming out of my mouth as a teacher are speech, the words that are on the screen of your phone are speech, and the music running through your headphones usually has words, which are also speech. The neurons in Wernicke’s area are taking all that language and trying to comprehend what is being said. If too much information is coming into your brain at the same time the brain must decide what to pay attention to and what to ignore. What do you think your brain is going to choose to pay attention to – the beauty of photosynthesis or your favorite Taylor Swift song? Your brain LITERALLY and PHYSIOLOGICALLY cannot pay attention to me as I try to teach AND your music AND your conversation on Snap or Insta. That’s nobody’s fault – it’s just the way it is.
The new board policy is not meant to take away your fun or to punish you for using your phone. It is meant to disconnect you from those things that distract you from the task at hand. You don’t have the neurological development to understand when to walk away from your phone (frontal lobe development) and then you can’t listen to two/three things at once (Wernicke’s Area). Putting the phone up is a healthy alternative. And the fact is that about half of my students don’t know how to put their phone away on their own – they need boundaries to help them learn and grow as a human, and that’s normal. High school is about developing habits that will be helpful for you as an adult – it’s not just about acquiring knowledge
Hopefully you can take this knowledge (new or old) and realize the board policy is years in the making and it is for your own benefit. We do care about you, and we hate to fight you about your phone. As an adult human with a fully developed frontal lobe, I hope you can hear me and take it to heart.
To read the editorial “Teach don’t take” click here.
