Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced that he backs the banning of mobile phones during school hours in an attempt to combat the supposed 'indiscipline' that many children have developed over the last year during lockdown.
"Although remote learning was a tremendous success in terms of enabling children to carry on with their lessons from home, the lack of regular structure and discipline will inevitably have had an effect on their behaviour." - Gavin Williamson
There is no harm to this statement. Nor is there any harm with the intentions of cracking down on the technology use of children, which I believe is out-of-hand. Some children are being given mobile phones and tablets from the moment they learn to hold it upright, and yes, I'm sure it makes parenting an awful lot easier if you can distract your child with technology. But we aren't to know the effects of this until years to come because we have never had a generation grow up with smart technology from such a young age.
Those approaching adulthood right now at least grew up without the iPhones and Androids of today in their formative years, relying on the far less entertaining Blackberries and Nokias in the late 2000's. Are we going to see an increase in learning disabilities? It's extremely possible. The effect of technology on our attention span is drastic.
We can't sit in front of the TV without having a mobile phone in front of us to keep us stimulated too, so what might it be like for young children trying to learn in the classroom. It's hard enough to concentrate in a lesson let alone when you've grown up in your formative years with constant stimulation from technology.
It is no fault of the parents in this instance though, despite many angry parents taking to Twitter to criticise Williamson for his comments about "undisciplined children". How are they supposed to entertain children all the time everyday when they work of their own to do. It is impossible. Nobody is to blame as such for the situation whereby children might be indisciplined, but it is certainly time to attempt to right the wrongs.
I was always brought up with strict technology rules. A one hour timer was set everyday for my one hour of FIFA on the Wii. Once time was up, that was it - off. I had to keep myself entertained some other way. I wasn't allowed a mobile phone until a week before I started secondary school and I can't tell you how jealous I was when I saw my friends bringing their (awful) phones into primary school. I've always been discouraged from having an iPhone. To be honest that's not particularly relevant but I have always been ridiculed for having the dreaded Android phone. And I was never allowed a mobile phone on holiday.
The reason I bore you with my personal experiences of parental guidance on technology is that I am extremely grateful for it. I have no doubt that it allowed me to do more as a child rather than wasting it away on a screen. It meant I enjoyed my holidays for what they were and I actually had to interact with my siblings (we rarely do anymore!)
So for the education secretary to come out and say these children need time away from the phones, is certainly right. I've seen people accusing Williamson of "attacking children". Yes, they lost their freedoms, but so did we all and it's important to recognise this is an attempt to help the youngest generation, not make them suffer further.
We never needed technology in the past to learn in schools, so why do we need it now? Fortunately, the majority agrees with me on this one. 69% of Britons are supportive of the call according to YouGov.
Now of course the ultimate decision lies in the hands of the individual schools themselves. They can choose to heed Williamson's advice but of course they don't have to. From personal experience of my secondary school, you were told to leave mobile phones in the locker. Nobody did. But to be fair, if you were seen with your mobile phone "on the school premises" (that phrase gives me nightmares) then you were disciplined. Once you reached a certain year group, phones were allowed. To me, that seems fair enough.
Because the protection here needs to be for the younger children, including those in the first few years of secondary school. Sixth form seems like a reasonable cut off point, even though if I was told that as a young teen I would've thought that to be outrageous.
The debate to mobile phones being banned in schools has raged on for a while now, and as with everything these days, there are extremes to the discussion with little room for middle ground. Some argue they should be left at home, some say they are useful learning tools. In all honesty, they really aren't great learning tools. Whenever a teacher would try something fancy on us with technology it would always be far more of a distraction and waste of time, than a useful exercise. I hate to break it, but Kahoot has never taught anybody anything, ever.
But for an example, a study from Beland & Murphy, 2015, found that in schools where mobile phones are banned, students performed 6.4% better than the average. The stats never lie.
It's not for me decide what is the right solution, but in light of Gavin Williamson's comments, I believe he is right. For the good of education, socialising, and simply making the most of children's younger years, let's limit their time on the screen, particularly at school.
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