Phone Free Schools 1

In his book “The Anxious Generation,” social psychologist Jonathan Haidt offers a series of recommendations for how to stop the epidemic of youth mental health issues. One of those recommendations is straightforward and blunt: no smartphones in schools. Fortuneately there’s a growing movement among schools, parents, and even some students themselves to make this necessary move. I’ve had conversations with administrators at the Delaware County Christian School just outside of Philadelphia regarding the decision they’ve made to take phones out of students’ hands for the duration of the school day. The move by DCCS was made thoughtfully, with reflection on cultural realities along with practical and theological reasons for establishing a phone-free school policy. As expected, this new policy has been widely applauded in the school community, and resulted in several positive outcomes. Listen in all this week as we talk about why we need phone-free schools.