Algebra vs. the algorithm

Could *you* focus on Math 9 if you had TikTok in your pocket? Here's the Op-Ed I wrote about devices in schools.

My parent friends fall into two categories: those with older kids who are pulling their hair out about devices, and those with younger kids who aren’t yet concerned because they have faith we’ll figure out the whole device thing before their kids are of an age where it gets ugly.

(And boy, does it get ugly sooner than you’d think!)

I’m in the former camp so I wrote an Op-Ed for the Vancouver Sun about the ‘device ban’ our schools have in place. Because the current one isn’t working.

I imagine your school board—wherever you live—is struggling with this too because new research is emerging every day about the impact of these dopamine drips™.

My two oldests were very young when I read Glennon Doyle’s Untamed, so I didn’t understand (at all!) Glennon’s concerns about smartphones. But this passage about filling every moment of childhood with devices has had me rattled to my core ever since:

“[...] we steal their boredom from them. As a result, we’re raising a generation of writers who will never start writing, artists, who will never start doodling, chefs who will never make a mess of the kitchen, athletes who will never kick a ball against a wall, musicians, who will never pick up their aunt’s guitar and start strumming.”

So friends, please enjoy my Op-Ed, which I’ve included below. If it’s a topic you care about too, please share? At the risk of sounding cringe… we can do this together.

Algebra vs. the Algorithm

Vancouver School Board’s current ‘device ban’ isn’t working. For the sake of our teachers, administrators and students, we need to remove personal devices from the classroom for real.

By Kelsey Dundon for The Vancouver Sun

It’s been almost two years since British Columbia announced Personal Digital Device Restrictions in Schools to much fanfare and the collective relief of everyone familiar with Jonathan Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation. The goal of the device ban is solid: to remove distractions from classrooms and allow students to focus on learning.

The only problem?

Each school district has developed its own policy and it’s become clear the Vancouver School Board’s policy in its current form is ineffective and ultimately puts too much strain on teachers, administrators and students.

In case you need a refresher, the VSB’s current device policy for secondary school students is essentially this: personal digital devices must be turned off or placed on silent mode before entering the classroom and during instructional time.

Ask any high school teacher what that means in practice and they’ll probably tell you smartphones are hidden under the desk or tucked behind books. From there, students spend classes scrolling and texting and doing all the things these brilliantly designed devices make far too difficult for even the most iron-willed among us to resist.

It’s not students’ fault. These devices are dopamine drips.

Asking a student to resist the allure of the smartphone is unfair—even for those who are able to white-knuckle it—because research has found when it comes to smartphones, willpower drains brainpower.

You may have heard of the Phone Proximity Effect, where the mere presence of a smartphone requires so much cognitive power to resist its temptations, it reduces the cognitive capacity available for other things. Like learning. And that study was conducted on adults. I can’t even imagine trying to focus on Math 9 when TikTok is in my pocket; algebra doesn’t stand a chance against the algorithm.

We need to remove personal devices from the classroom for real.

We could follow the lead of pioneering independent schools in our region whose device bans mean smartphones are locked away all day. We could join the ranks of forward-thinking schools around the world that require phones to be stored during the school day in Yondr pouches—the same technology you might find at a concert or a comedy show. Or the VSB could simply adopt for secondary schools what is already in place for its elementary schools: phones are restricted for the entire instructional day, including class time, recess and lunch. Though I hope it goes without saying there should still be exceptions—as in the VSB’s current policy—for students who need to use a device to support medical or diverse educational needs.

School districts with effective bell-to-bell device bans have found students’ test scores have improved significantly, especially for low-achieving students. They found students connect better with each other in class and during breaks; they even found students check out more library books.

Because when we actually remove smartphones from school in a thorough, clear-cut manner, we take the pressure off teachers and administrators from having to waste precious class time policing them (their plates are already overflowing!). And we free up students’ cognitive capacity for concentrating on the things that actually matter.

A common refrain I hear from fellow parents is how relieved we are that we didn’t have smartphones and social media when we were growing up. That’s a gift we can give our children—at the very least during their school day.

P.S. We got a landline for our kids and I highly recommend it for all the reasons I’m supposed to—and also because it’s hilarious watching them try to understand how those things work. (Yes, you can phone any phone. No, it won’t work if you take it to a coffee shop.)

P.P.S. We held an Anxious Generation bookclub at our school and it was fascinating for a million reasons, not least of which was the fact that every dad who attended works in tech. If you’re thinking of doing one and you’d like to know how we ran ours, send me a note?

P.P.P.S. How old were you when you got a cell phone?