Phones in the Classroom: Help or Distraction?

Last year, a national survey asked 2,000 teachers about phones in class. Seventy-eight percent said phones distract their students. For these teachers, the phone is the biggest distraction in the room. In response, many schools have introduced new rules: at Lincoln High School, students must keep phones in their bags during lessons. Only three schools in the district still allow phones at desks.

There is research evidence behind the worry. A 2023 study at a large university found that students who kept phones on their desks remembered less from a lesson, even when the phones were silent. Psychologists explain that part of the brain keeps waiting for a message, so concentration falls.

But not everyone agrees with a total ban. 'A phone is also a dictionary, a camera, and a library,' says Ms. Alvarez, a science teacher. 'In my class, students use phones to photograph experiments and check facts. Banning them completely is lazy teaching, in my opinion.'

Some students agree with her. Others are honest about the problem: 'I check my phone maybe forty times a day,' admits Jake, 16. 'When it is in my bag, I concentrate better. I hate admitting it, but the rule helps me.'

For now, Lincoln High's rule stays. The school will ask teachers and students again in the spring. Whatever they decide, the phones will not disappear — the argument is really about where a phone belongs during a lesson: on the desk, in the bag, or somewhere in between.