In my last piece, I shared about the inconclusive research findings associated with banning student phones at school and the outcomes of academic achievement and positive mental health and well-being. I argued that we shouldn’t treat these devices as a singular crisis, because social, cultural, and contextual factors all strongly affect how students do scholastically and personally, and also are inextricably linked with how exactly they use their phones. Today, I wanted to share a conversation I recently had with Rabbi Dr. Hillel Broder, who serves as Head of School at Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville, Maryland. Let’s dive right in!
Rabbi Dr. Broder, you and I have worked together for about 1.5 years now, and we’ve had multiple conversations on student device use at school. Over the last year, you’ve implemented a Wait Past 8th Initiative, and I think enough time has passed to have a meaningful conversation about lessons learned.
Read more: https://cyberbullying.org/phone-free-school
