The last day of school is about a month away. It should also be the last day for cellphones in elementary schools.
Provinces, including New Brunswick, are taking steps to restrict cellphones in school, finally recognizing they are distractions in often chaotic classrooms where teachers already have enough trouble getting students’ attention. The former minister of education Dominic Cardy says his one big regret is that he didn’t ban cellphones in school when he had the chance.
New Brunswick’s new policy isn’t a ban but it will require students to silence their phones and leave them in a designated place in the classroom. Teachers will have the authority to permit use for educational or medical reasons. That’s a good start and Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island should do at least that much.
Ontario is going further, requiring the youngest students, from kindergarten to Grade 6, to silence their phones and put them away for the entire school day unless otherwise permitted by the teacher.
But why do pre-teens need to take cellphones to school in the first place? There is growing evidence young children shouldn’t have access to social media without strong parental control. Surely any necessary contact between a parent and a young child can be made through the school office, as it was for decades before cellphones.
So when the elementary children go back to school in September, let’s have them leave the phones at home.
