Headmaster's Blog

“I try, but no one is interested,” explained a sweet middle school girl about the rest of those waiting at the bus stop with her.  Surrounded by classmates, but isolated – she knows that any attempt to get the other kids to look up from their phones is an exercise in futility.  The magnetism of the device in their hands presents a formidable competition for her attention.  

But I’m filled with hope as I walk into our student commons each morning. This is no typical school setting. It’s wonderfully interactive. The students chatter and joke, sit on the floor in circles, and crowd around tables.  In a far corner is the “phone hotel” where students leave behind their devices each day.  This is a group that understands that life is more than what is fed to them through the portal in their hands.  

Research shows that phone-free learning environments result in better academic performance, stronger relationships, better mental health, more student engagement, and lessened anxiety (Twenge, 2025).  Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (2024) explains that a phone-centric environment causes social deprivation and attention fragmentation, which negatively impacts brain development and social formation.  “Smartphones are experience blockers – they block kids from experiences they need to grow, like real-world friendships, risk-taking, and independence” (Haidt, The Atlantic, 2024). While it’s of value for students to learn how to use technology – and good educators will prepare their students in this way – having unfettered access in their hands throughout the day is setting them up for failure. 

Like offering a healthy, well-balanced meal to our children instead of a bag of chips, we offer our students an opportunity to develop as whole people by removing the phone and replacing with educational and social activities that foster community, stewardship, spiritual development, and academic opportunities that don’t require a crutch that will do the thinking for them.  The benefits of removing a phone during the learning day and during any aspect of the learning process are profound, and we see this play out in both anecdotal and quantitative results in our students. We encourage parents to both educate their children on these benefits as well as choose such an environment for their learning.  It doesn’t take long before the students themselves feel the difference, and they will soon be thanking you for setting them up for success!  

References

Twenge, J.M. 2025. 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World: How Parents Can Stop Smartphones, Social Media, and Gaming from Taking Over Their Children's Lives. Simon & Schuster.

Abdulrahman M. Alotaibi. 2023. “The Impact of Social Media on the Mental Health of Adolescents and Young Adults: A Systematic Review”.

Haidt, J. (2024, March 14). The terrible costs of a phone-based childhood. The Atlantic. 

Haidt, J. (2024). The anxious generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. Penguin Press.