The movement to ban smartphones in schools widens
The smart phone: Proven very bad for kids
According to a detailed Washington Examiner story earlier this week, the campaign to ban smartphones in schools is expanding rapidly, with widespread bi-partisan support, backed up by studies and school reports that consistently show significant improvements in student behavior and learning when smart phones are banned.
Eight states have banned cellphone use in schools, with Florida being the first to do so when Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a bill into law in 2023. The legislation in the Sunshine State allows teachers to ban cellphone use during classroom instruction and authorizes them to hold a student’s phone if it becomes a distraction.
Florida was followed by Indiana, Louisiana, Virginia, California, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Ohio in passing similar bans that have either been enacted or will be in the coming year. Each of the states that have passed bans has taken different approaches to implementing the policy.
Fifteen other states have proposed a ban, and an additional eight states are either doing test bans in selected regions or have issued recommendations endorsing bans. That makes for a total if 32 states out of 50 that are working to keep smart phones away from kids when they are in school.
The best aspect of this is the generally bi-partisan nature of the movement. While most of the initial action occurred in red states controlled by conservative politicians, blue states like California and Minnesota have also joined in. A Minnesota middle school for example was an early practitioner of the ban in 2023, finding it not only improved classroom participation, but the entire social atmosphere in the school improved. In California meanwhile Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law restricting smartphone that takes effect in July 2026. Even Washington, D.C. is debating legislation to institute a school ban.
The sooner the better. Kids don’t need smart phones. All they really need is a dumb phone to call their parents in case of an emergency. And when they are in school this is even less necessary. Spending their time staring at a screen is the worst way to learn to live with other humans, a learning experience that is probably their number one class assignment.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
The smart phone: Proven very bad for kids
According to a detailed Washington Examiner story earlier this week, the campaign to ban smartphones in schools is expanding rapidly, with widespread bi-partisan support, backed up by studies and school reports that consistently show significant improvements in student behavior and learning when smart phones are banned.
Eight states have banned cellphone use in schools, with Florida being the first to do so when Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a bill into law in 2023. The legislation in the Sunshine State allows teachers to ban cellphone use during classroom instruction and authorizes them to hold a student’s phone if it becomes a distraction.
Florida was followed by Indiana, Louisiana, Virginia, California, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Ohio in passing similar bans that have either been enacted or will be in the coming year. Each of the states that have passed bans has taken different approaches to implementing the policy.
Fifteen other states have proposed a ban, and an additional eight states are either doing test bans in selected regions or have issued recommendations endorsing bans. That makes for a total if 32 states out of 50 that are working to keep smart phones away from kids when they are in school.
The best aspect of this is the generally bi-partisan nature of the movement. While most of the initial action occurred in red states controlled by conservative politicians, blue states like California and Minnesota have also joined in. A Minnesota middle school for example was an early practitioner of the ban in 2023, finding it not only improved classroom participation, but the entire social atmosphere in the school improved. In California meanwhile Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law restricting smartphone that takes effect in July 2026. Even Washington, D.C. is debating legislation to institute a school ban.
The sooner the better. Kids don’t need smart phones. All they really need is a dumb phone to call their parents in case of an emergency. And when they are in school this is even less necessary. Spending their time staring at a screen is the worst way to learn to live with other humans, a learning experience that is probably their number one class assignment.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Funny thing about distractions is that Gian-Carlo Rota banned newspapers, books, and the taking of notes in his lectures. It felt like that point in a rehearsal of a play where you are off book and really starting to see what is going on.
Seiji Ozawa required singers to memorize the music.
Fantastic! I taught Middle School Math in the Elk Grove School District. If a student took out their cellphone during class, we kept it until a ‘responsible’ adult could show up and collect it. These parents or guardians were none too happy about the policy, but we did not relent. Eventually the students and families adapted. One day, I was filling in for a different subject, showing a video. The classroom was darker, and a student took out his Gameboy. The light lit up his face in the darker room. I confiscated it. The mom had me keep it for several weeks.
PS Yes, teaching middle school age is not for everyone. With all of the craziness, they are aliens. I looooved it.
“it not only improved classroom participation, but the entire social atmosphere in the school improved. ”
“Kids don’t need smart phones. All they really need is a dumb phone to call their parents in case of an emergency.”
There’s a middle school near where I work and I see kids walking past on their way to and from school. They don’t walk with other kids, they walk alone spaced like 30 feet apart looking down at their phones as they walk.
The problem with this is that it is about 5 years too late. Besides kids waisting their time on social media, it has become a normal part of school communication. Classes, teams, clubs, even messages from the school bus. They use instagram, Snapchat, Band,, and Remind. This is how everyone communicates right now. Even many of the teachers and advisors. It is how information is exchanged. They should have banned them long before now.
I”m old and was asked a while back if I had a “smart phone” I said “depends on who’s using it”!
The phones may be “smart”, but one has to be pretty smart to USE one. Being in a school classroom to learn a subject is NOT the place for a “smart phone”! Now if the SUBJECT was being taught THROUGH the phone then that’s a legitimate reason to have one, but does EVERYONE have one? That could be seen as a “racist issue” since the left phrases everything not absolutely “equal” as RACIAL! SO the best approach is to NOT allow the distractions. Walking with you nose in a smart phone isn’t very smart either, but that’s why other people make the videos showing other people getting hit by cars or falling in holes!
Totally against cell phones in K-12. The Teacher can have one in her desk. (And all computer terminals in class should be intra-net only, no access to the web.)
Huge distraction. Completely defeats the idea that children should learn how to deal with each other face to face and be capable of minimal compliance & normative behavior in group settings.
With USAID in the spotlight, an anecdotal tale of waste:
I’m at the local Community Mental Health Organization in 2013; somebody found a Federal Grant and we bought 20 Tablet computers and *gave them* to a group of 18–24-year-old mentally ill clients. (What could go wrong?)
I about melted down. My little budget was being scrutinized over dimes & quarters, and we (“THEM!”) blew over $20K on toys for folks who already demonstrated their lack of ability to manage their own affairs, to be polite.
Needless to say, they all vanished by the end of the year, poof, nobody was responsible, and nobody cared.
I used a flip phone until last month.
I miss the silence. Too much internet.