Out of pocket

One of the most notable changes to school policy this year is the strict enforcement of no phones. No phones in class, no phones at lunch, and no phones in the halls. Generally, the school is minimizing phone usage among its students. Some other schools take phones away from morning until evening, but Mercersburg Academy prides itself on not doing that. However, the new policies require our phones to be placed in designated sleeves, achieving the same effect.

How does separating students from their phones teach students proper habits? It doesn't. Don’t get me wrong—I am in full support of students not using their phones under the lunch table or in the back of a classroom. However, I feel that the school’s attempts to limit phones are hurting students in the long run. The new policies have been enforced to help us stop relying on the small pieces of technology we use for almost every moment of our lives. There is typically no place for phones during class, so I concur with the school’s intentions to limit phone usage during classes. However, my grievance against new policies is that it does not truly foster self-control among students.

An instant of discipline and then a long period of feigned discipline is more dangerous than no discipline at all. The moment you put your phone in a numbered sleeve on the wall, all of the discipline it took you to put it there disappears. To me, when you put your phone in the sleeve, the urge to use it disappears, but is not dead. You still have just as much of an addiction to your phone; you're just not able to sum up the courage to get up and use it.

Now, what does discipline truly look like? Imagine the phone was not in a sleeve but rather in your pocket. You feel it buzzing on your leg, but now the choice is actually yours. You want to take your phone out and check what you missed, but now you won’t. It’s not that you can’t, because many students would go on their phone in class if given this option, but you have the choice to and will eventually learn not to because of intrinsic discipline. That is where a habit breaks and where an addiction weakens, where routine transforms and cravings wane. Therefore, instead of conjuring the illusion of discipline by removing the need for students to battle against the allure of devices, the school should leave that responsibility in our hands to spur authentic growth.