25 Feb SET High: Phone-Free is All About Trust
What happens when you prioritize connection and communication at your school? At the School for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SET High), a tuition-free 9th-12th grade high school in San Diego, we’re testing this in a radical way: trusting our students to keep their phones out-of-sight during school. How are we doing this? How we do everything: we’re transparent, proactive in explaining the “why”, and earnestly helping our students succeed!
No Cell Phone Zone
This year, about a week before school started, SET High sat down with teachers and talked about a cell phone policy. SET High leaders, Dr. McCurdy and Ms. Geis had already debated what to do about student cell phone use on our new podcast, Nicky & Me (episode 4). Spoiler alert: there was no resolution on the podcast but rather a conversation about what to do. As an independent public charter school, we love having the autonomy in making decisions like this. Once faculty were on board, it was time to talk to students.
When school started, SET High brought students together in-person to introduce the new policy. Over a long conversation, we explained how and why this was happening. Sure, we could’ve just said, “well, San Diego Unified School District is doing it so we’re doing it, blame them, the end.” But that’s not the SET way: we like being engaged with our students and over-explaining our reasoning. We also like to have a dialogue with our students and let’s just say this particular conversation could be fierce at times but in the end, students saw that they were being heard and listened to even if the policy felt strict to some.
And what is our cell phone policy? Simple. Cell phones can’t be out during the school day.
And why?
Class focus for one thing. Having a phone out is a temptation to check out of class and into the magical land of phone distraction. When you’re distracted, you’re not listening to instruction and you’re not thinking about class. But wait– what if I’m using my phone as a calculator…very helpful in class, right? Uh-huh. But then you see you received a notification from Insta and your brain is like, “must…click…” and given the dopamine choice between that instant gratification and calculating how long it would take a train to go uphill at 65mph if the wind is barreling down at 30.4mph from the east…we would do the same thing.
In fact, some of the teachers are taking the cell phone policy to heart and not using theirs in solidarity with students.
Another reason for the cell phone ban is student mental health. As we learn more and more about how unhealthy social media is, we want to take responsibility and help you resist it, even if it’s just for eight hours a day.
Keeping Families Connected
One of the biggest issues about a cell phone ban is how are parents supposed to get in touch with their students. At our California Distinguished School, we’ve enabled Google chat on our chromebooks so families can be in touch. You can have your phone on you too (out of sight!), so if there’s a big emergency, you can reach out.
Sure, using your computer to chat is a temptation but we want to be realistic at the same time. This is an opportunity to teach students how to manage their time (see also our take on using AI in the classroom). Students need to learn to self-regulate when it comes to being on a computer but given their age and brain development, self-relegating on a computer and a phone is a lot, especially with access to social media on a phone.
If families need to connect on the phone during the day, we have a solution for that too! Come on in the office and we’ll hook you up with a landline to make calls, or we can relay messages from the outside world to you when needed.
Trust & Respect
Have you noticed how we have not mentioned pouches or lockers or taking your phone away from you at the beginning of the day? That’s because we have trust in you. We’re serious about connecting and communicating with students and treating you with the respect we ask for in return.
As we mentioned, some students were not happy about the new policy and voiced their complaints- which we welcomed! And we’re proud that even some of the more outspoken critics are now embracing it- not because of any authoritarian decree but because we met them where they were and engaged in a conversation. We took each concern seriously and came up with collaborative solutions, like opening up Google chat on the school chromebooks.
But what happens when you have your phone out? Given it’s a school policy, there are consequences, but we’re not looking for a power struggle, it’s your choice.
First, we remind you of the expectations because we understand that this is a big change. If a phone is consistently out, a teacher can confiscate it for the rest of the day, reminding you that the way to have the phone privilege is to keep your phone out of sight.
And sure, if it becomes an issue, we could implement taking your phone away, but we keep the dialogue open because no one –especially us– wants that.
What to Do with All Your Phone-Free Time
Without your phone in your hand what can you do? Oh let us count the ways…
- Join a club! Get physical with an impassioned game of ping pong or help set school policy by joining SET Senate.
- Check out all of our classes and petition the return of some past favorites, like Space Science, or Debunking Disney.
- Hang out in our new and improved student lounge.
- Work on your passion project– it’s one of the ways SET sets itself apart from other schools. We believe passion fuels learning.
We are so proud of our staff and students for taking this proactive step toward reclaiming the sanctity of the classroom as a space for focused learning.
Curious how students felt about this new policy? Check out our student-run news network, FNN for the coverage here.
Want to be part of a school culture that trusts and respects you? Our WASC-accredited school is enrolling now– it’s not too late to switch!
About SET High
SET High offers each student individual attention from multi-talented, highly qualified teachers. Students build a healthy camaraderie with classmates inside an intellectually rigorous environment that brings out their talents and personality, helping them develop their individual character and direction in life. With a wide variety of electives, flexible scheduling, dual enrollment college classes and more — our students regularly exceed their academic and personal expectations. Enroll now.