The start of the 2024-25 school year saw many changes, a notable one being the phone hotels that hang on each classroom door, which get populated with the phones of students as they enter the class. This new restriction is dramatically different from the COVID and Post-COVID reliance on technology. However, this practice was commonly seen Pre-COVID.
Dean of Students Tina Yen said that this policy is “essentially the same policy at AFS before COVID, but before COVID, it was not an intentional policy, but more of a practice…now it’s more of an intentional policy.”
Yen said, “There has been a lot of research and reports showing that there are negative impacts being on our phone in our society, not just students but also adults. The goal is to have a dialogue about how [phones] impact learning and what we want learning to look like here.”
As everyone adjusts to this change, new students to AFS share many of the same concerns as students who have been here longer. Ayden Austin ‘26 is new to the community this year.
When asked about the new phone policy, Austin said, “We need to get rid of it because people should be able to use their phones as long as it is not disruptive.”
Drew Shenkman ‘25, who has been here at AFS for nine years, expressed a similar view and said, “It’s the student’s fault if they aren’t paying attention, but if a student can be on their phone and still be productive and present, then they should be able to have it.”
In addition, teachers wonder about how this will help the growth of their students. Terri Wiley, an English teacher, said that she “[doesn’t] care about the cell phones [in her class].”
Wiley instead said, “How are we being intentional about teaching good etiquette about cell phone use? How are we actually giving direct lessons teaching self control?”
This new policy will have an impact on the community, whether it be positive or negative. What do you think; should we ban the cell phone ban?
