The students and staff at Hawthorne High were introduced to a new phone policy this year.

All students are now required to put their phones in caddies at the front of the classroom at the start of class. This new policy was put in place by the administration here at HHS, in hopes of improving focus in class. But does the new policy really increase student focus in the classroom? 

Despite this new phone policy some students might find it difficult to focus in class. Getting rid of phones doesn’t get rid of distractions in the classroom. While students might not have access to their phones, they have access to the internet (through their Chromebooks). Even with the school’s monitoring, students still manage to go on other websites that pull their attention away from classwork. 

Something else the phone policy forgets to cover are the students who focus better with music. Some students might find it hard to sit in a quiet room and just type on their computer with no noise in the background.

The phone policy also includes headphones (earbuds) and this makes it difficult for some who need something to fill the quietness of a classroom. This is another distraction in the classroom. Students that can’t focus in the quiet will get less work done and their attention will be more easily misplaced. At the very least students should be able to listen to music. 

The phone policy also increases phone usage in the halls. Students are now rushing to respond to mixed texts and get on social media before the start of the next class. This can create a number of issues within the halls. Students might just stop walking and clog up the hallway or trip over other students.

In theory, the phone caddy policy might’ve been a good idea, but in practice it doesn’t seem to cover a lot of underlying issues regarding student focus. Overtime, the policy will hopefully become stronger and address the other issues students may face in regards to their attention span, but for now the phone caddies don’t seem to be doing enough.