Cell phones, for the most part, have been an important and positive technological development for the world. It’s created a large network for instant messaging and content creation — and helped promote literacy, learning and global communication.
But the devices, often as powerful as some computers and cameras, have also become serious distractions — with mild users checking for real-time updates like a nervous tick, and addicted users fully engrossed in a screen and completely disengaged with reality.
During Thursday’s convening of the Trigg County Schools Board of Education, Trigg County Middle School Principal Amy Breckel gave members an update on this first month of the year — and how things have been going “very well” here at the start.
One of the reasons for this ecstatic start: the ban of cell phone use during school hours.
Students in the Midcat halls don’t have these devices in their hands now. At the start of this year, Breckel said they implemented this measure stemming from site-based decisions with little, if any, serious blowback. Children safely arrive at the school and put their phones in lockers, and can only retrieve them when the final bell rings.
A louder lunch room could be a good thing, because instead of faces being in food and phones, it’s “forcing” interaction between students — who then develop conversation skills at the minimum, and friendships at the maximum.
The move to drop cell phone use also has a slightly deeper meaning at the middle school. Breckel said there’s been a constant reminder of “loving and nurturing” one another, with accomplished author Joshua Dickerson’s poem “Cause I Ain’t Got A Pencil” serving as a major talking point among the teachers and faculty.
The poem reads:
I woke myself up
Because we ain’t got an alarm clock
Dug in the dirty clothes basket,
Cause ain’t nobody washed my uniform
Brushed my hair and teeth in the dark,
Cause the lights ain’t on
Even got my baby sister ready,
Cause my mama wasn’t home.
Got us both to school on time,
To eat us a good breakfast.
Then when I got to class the teacher fussed
Cause I ain’t got no pencil
Board member Gayle Rufli noted the removal of cell phones from the classrooms and lunch was a good idea.
Superintendent Bill Thorpe also lauded the decision to pull the distracting devices.
Breckel also noted that repetition for learning new skills and improved behaviors has been key in middle school classrooms in this first month. For school children, she said it typically takes an average eight times before something new is learned. For adults, that average spikes to 25. And for school children trying to unlearn an incorrect skill and relearn it correctly requires 28 repetitions.
For adults? Well, there may not be a number for that.
Breckel said she’s also trying to visit up to 10 classrooms a week, 10 minutes at a time, in order to further observe the middle school.