Last Word: Can You Hear Me Now?

The Arkansas state legislature’s push to rid the state’s classrooms of cellphones is a wonderful proposal that should have happened 10 years ago at the very least.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders kicked off the 2025 legislative session by announcing the Bell to Bell, No Cell Act, which would ban smart phones and similar electronic devices, such as smart watches, from Arkansas public schools beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. The rapid response on the statehouse floor made it a question of “when, not if,” and the act was signed into law in late February.

This won’t put Arkansas at the forefront. At least 19 states have already enacted some kind of cellphone ban, the popular option being Yondr pouches, sealable pouches that prevent students from accessing smartphones while on school grounds.

Whatever form Bell to Bell, No Cell eventually takes, it is a rare piece of educational legislation from Sanders that really invites little discussion. This is not the LEARNS Act, which still sparks heated debate more than a year after its introduction. For a change, Arkansans can unite on the same side. There is scant argument to be had here. This needed to happen, and it needed to happen years ago, full stop.

I know a little something about this.

I spent the past decade as a high school English teacher, primarily in Louisiana. I have also been a coach. Boy, oh boy, have I been a coach. Baseball. Football. Girls basketball. Volleyball. I was even asked to serve as an emergency golf coach but begged off due to barely knowing which end of the club goes where. I’ve coached in state semifinal games, double-overtime games and fierce cross-town rivalries.

Absolutely none of it was as emotionally and mentally exhausting as trying to teach in the smartphone era.

School administrators call it “student engagement.” It is the expectation that, should an administrator enter the classroom, students will be on task, fully focused and speaking only about the subject matter at hand.

Consider that for a moment. Imagine standing before a classroom of 24 to 30 adolescents of varying backgrounds, personalities and learning styles. Teach whatever you want. Let’s say it’s Shakespeare’s Macbeth (one of my favorite books to teach.) You’ve been told by your supervising administrator that during surprise “walk-throughs,” the expectation is 100 percent student engagement. You must hold their attention for 60 minutes, 90 if you’re on a block schedule. And each student has their cell phone.

Ready, set, go.

Schools have existing cell phone rules, of course. Normally it is some variant of, “If the student has a cell phone out, it can be confiscated.” I’ll let you in on a trade secret: Some, but certainly not all, educators have long since given up the fight. I was one of them.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that teens’ dependence on their smartphones has morphed into a full-blown addiction. I can only speak to my own skirmishes with students. I’m not talking about the “bad kids.” I’m talking about studious, affable students, kids who would never run afoul of classroom rules, reacting defensively and sometimes aggressively to something as simple as, “Can I have your phone so you won’t be distracted?”

Administrators, content coaches and the myriad “educational consultants” out there can preach student engagement all they want. There is no existing strategy that can match up with a teenager’s smartphone.

What exists as of now — and what makes the Bell To Bell, No Cell Act so important — is an environment where already-overworked educators are pressured to be as entertaining or “engaging” as possible just to contend with the siren song of cell phones. The problem with this is we’re not providing the tools students need to function in the real-world workplace.

During my teaching career, it was made clear to me that if a student is sleeping in my classroom, that’s my problem. Kids on their phones? A clear sign the students are not engaged enough. But that backfires when we send high school graduates into a world that could care less whether they’re “engaged” or not. I often told students complaining of sleepiness or boredom that neither college professors nor workplace supervisors will care a whit about whether they are being entertained. Yet thanks to smartphones, teachers are being pushed to be entertainers.

Don’t get it wrong. Over 10 years, I never knew a single teacher that did not strive to make their lessons as lively and interesting as possible. But driving educators to keep students in rapt attention fails to teach the personal responsibility and self-control they will need in a world that won’t bother with Yondr pouches. If we don’t condition students to function without their smartphones now, we’ll be getting a sort of societal credit card bill in the mail years down the line, and the price will be higher than what anyone can afford.