Catherine Freytag ‘26
As St. Andrew’s begins its 2024-2025 school year, the biggest topic of conversation is the newly implemented Upper School cell phone policy. The new policy bars cell phone use from all areas of campus, indoors or out, between 8:40 and 3:15 unless expressly permitted by a teacher.
Objectively, the rules haven’t changed all that much from previous years, with the most significant difference being the outlawing of phones from the student center and outdoor spaces.
I believe that last year’s policy of cell phone freedom outside of classrooms and hallways, where the learning happens, was superior as it gave students a taste of freedom, but not too much.
The opportunity to choose what we do with some of our time during the day, whether it be productive or not, was valuable as it served as a chance to learn from our choices.
Additionally, the option to use phones sometimes enhanced the trust between students and teachers, and with the new rules, that relationship feels compromised in a few ways. While I can appreciate the CTTL’s intention of increasing “academic focus and community” with the new policy, it’s questionable if this is the right way to do it.
One key way St. Andrew’s’ stance on phones relates to trust is the idea that students should be able to prioritize their academics and find a balance between that and social life. Sure, we aren’t adults, but we are working towards that future, and it is important to develop a healthy relationship with technology now so we can resist the control our phones can have over us, something the CTTL took into account when developing the new policy.
According to Mr. Whitman, Executive Director of the CTTL, “It is our responsibility to teach you responsibility” and that distancing from phones during the school day helps in that mission. I do think that productivity has increased and students are feeling less attached to their phones, but the long periods of deprivation might be more of an academic setback in some ways.
An anonymous student remarked that they found themselves spending more time scrolling their phone after school before starting homework this school year.
Having the option to use phones during free periods and outside allowed students to practice self-regulation, which “is a skill we need all our students to develop,” said Mr. Whitman.
Mandating that students not use their phones doesn’t teach them responsibility. Ideally, students should have a deeper understanding of how and why they need to responsibly use their phones during the day as well as after. The new phone policy is a good example of what responsibility looks like, but it is important to teach students how to achieve it so they can practice and master proper phone usage independently. How can they do that if they’re never allowed to use their phones? By giving students the ability to learn self-discipline skills, the administration’s confidence in appropriate phone usage from students during the day should be strengthened.
When I interviewed Mr. Whitman, he mentioned the malicious intent of cell phone companies to foster addiction to their products. While this and many other negative impacts that may have been caused by phones are important to consider, living in the modern age means they will always be a part of life, so everyone needs to figure out a healthy relationship where they control their phone and use it as a tool, not the other way around. As part of preparation for the future, students should be guided in how to develop a beneficial relationship and be trusted to practice independently during free periods.
As previously mentioned, further limiting phone use intended to increase community at St. Andrew’s was something that Mr Whitman said the CTTL “[was] observing an impact on” with the previous phone policy. I can agree that students are having more face-to-face conversations, but in the digital age, those aren’t the only valuable types. Phone usage during free time can benefit community relationships in many ways, like spreading the word about sports games through social media, organizing quality time with peers outside campus, making connections with new community members, and sharing details about classes and schedules through text.
Students should have the resource of phones to help foster the online aspect of a community. Without a phone, some things that have become so easy with technology feel like they require three extra steps, like taking a long way home instead of a shortcut. As the stress and difficulty of high school only grow, shouldn’t teachers want students to utilize the ability to take the shortcuts provided by phones sometimes?
While I wish that was the case here, the policy is most likely here to stay for a while, so the next best thing is to provide alternate ways to provide the two main pieces of information phones give during the day: access to the schedule and a clock. As a solution to the instinct to reach for my phone and check what time class starts or what block is next, the administration could work to display the schedule and time more clearly and accessible around campus.