In their carpentry workshop, the boys from the Salesian Institute in the hills of Castel Dè Britti, in the Bolognese area, have built a wooden mobile phone cabinet that is now sold out in schools. Upon arrival in the classroom, each student places it in the numbered space, the door closes, the withdrawal is allowed during the break and at the exit. It occurs in one out of four high schools, says Studenti.it in a survey.
Not that rings, chats and messages were not forbidden during the lessons, they have been since the time of Minister Fioroni, with guidelines proposed later by Minister Fedeli. But now more and more high schools and institutes are becoming phone-free: it is the last frontier to stem the dependence on the small screen that has grown in the two and a half years of the pandemic. A phenomenon that worries teachers and principals.
The most drastic, and least followed, solution came from the Malpighi high school in Bologna. It caused a sensation: cell phones withdrawn for as long as students and teachers are at school, including recreation. Very few go that far. In middle school the delivery of cell phones is widespread, in high school it proceeds in no particular order. And cyclically the dilemma arises: turn off the smartphone completely at school or teach how to use it correctly? Does the ban mean a school that raises the white flag, unable to carry out an educational intervention, or the only measure now possible to bring concentration and relationships back into the classroom by looking in the eyes?
the teacher Federica Mazzoni he tells of the glances that immediately run to cell phones at every change of hour, “and we see them arriving tired because they may have watched videos or chatted late into the night. Cell phone addiction has grown exponentially after the pandemic”. The principal too Alessandra Francuccivoice of the Andis executives association, has introduced in his technical institute the withdrawal of mobile phones during the lessons from this year, but only in classes from the first to the third: “For the older ones we trust in the sense of responsibility, but the 14- 16-year-olds, who developed an important addiction during the years of the pandemic, cannot break away on their own, they need to be helped. Children are not satisfied with just telling them not to watch TV, turn it off “.
Antonello Giannelli of the PNA focuses on digital education, rather than preventing the use of smartphones. The students of the Berto Scientific High School in Vibo Valentia put it in a box every morning. “They film it during the interval – says the principal Licia Bevilacqua – I do not agree to prohibit it absolutely, better to regulate its use. During the pandemic, the mobile phone, especially in some areas of the South, was the tool that allowed connection and contact with students “.
At the Oriani technical institute in Faenza there have been cell phone bags in every classroom, laboratory and gym for some years now. “It’s not enough to tell the kids they can’t use it because it’s addictive,” observes the principal Fabio Gramellini. “The boys accept it, then there is always someone who is smart”. A daily struggle, which often leads to cases of cyberbullying or of professors filmed without their knowledge while they are teaching. Most say it is difficult to disconnect children from mobile phones, addicted generation. After two years of isolation and Dad, then, the business is even more difficult. The Baldini Industrial Technical Institute in Ravenna has also been running for cover with the circular issued in recent days on the delivery of mobile phones, to “guarantee students the best and profitable attention, to promote socialization and fight more and more widespread addictions to smartphones “. And it doesn’t matter if the last minute bell is all a ringing and a beep-beep of text messages. Outside school.
The principal in favor
“They can’t do without it. Only with the ban are they careful”
Marco Ferrari, Professor of Philosophy who at 35 entered the top ten of the Teacher Prize and is now the principal of the Malpighi High School in Bologna, has no doubts: “Don’t win smartphone addiction with good will”.
The choice you made was judged to be drastic: ban the use of mobile phones for as long as the children are in school. How do you motivate it?
“I see my kids during the intermission, they don’t even talk to each other anymore. And we know how distracted they get in the classroom. The decision was born after months of reflection, which involved neuropsychiatrists and teachers and after a meeting with parents for sharing “.
Prohibit or educate?
“We realized that it is impossible to ask children to detach from their smartphones, so we took the responsibility not to deny them something, but to give them a gift of freedom: allow them to regain attention and concentration at work in the classroom. , to rediscover the gaze of others, the companion or the teacher. This is to educate, otherwise you avoid the problems that arise and choose what is most comfortable. Whoever says that they must be taught to use a tool is deluded even if in good faith : because we adults have to offer them a different quality of time and always with an educational proposal that fascinates them and brings them on board in the path and learning. Last year there were cases of cyberbullying, we banned cell phones and we saw that the boys resisted, indeed they were more careful “.
Her older students didn’t take it very well …
“I realize that ours is a drastic, but courageous initiative. It is an attempt that I think all schools should experiment. Every month I will speak with the children, especially the older ones. At the end of the year we will measure the results and see how to go forward”.
Why did the ban also extend to professors?
“The teachers will leave it in the teacher’s room or in the bag so the kids will see that adults are the first to lead by example. We adults know what a space for relationships without smartphones is, they don’t because they were born there. And our responsibility is also do not leave them at the mercy of social media that have billionaire interests and enormous attractive and distracting power “.
The headmaster opposed
“So they are even more attracted to it. They must be educated in the correct use”
“The fewer bans you put in school, the better.” Gianmarco Martelloni, 47, head of the Iis Capirola di Leno, in the province of Brescia, the fourth in Lombardy for complexity is convinced of this: 2,200 students, 260 teachers, 14 addresses, from high school to technical and professional.
Why did you make the choice not to collect mobile phones?
“Intato would be impossible with so many students! But the substance is that for me the educational aspect must prevail: it is more useful to make them understand how to use the tool they have in their hands all day long, even outside of school. I respect the colleagues who choose other ways, equally correct because it is the context that counts. I would like to use the phrase from George Lakoff’s book “Don’t think the elephant” “.
What do you mean?
“I remember that in a school, before this assignment, mobile phones were put away in a transparent box. I remember the frantic rush of the boys when it came to taking them back. They had become objects of desire, they were even more attracted to what you had taken away from them” .
How do you manage in your institution?
“As per the regulation that is common to many schools: the mobile phone cannot be used during lessons except for educational purposes. It is the teachers who decide, there are those who use it with the Kahoot learning platform, address surveyors use it with the App to make measurements “.
Can you enforce the rule?
“As always, it depends on the relationship that the students have with the teacher. We have even come to suspend in serious cases that can be counted on the fingers of one hand. It is not easy, on the other hand it is also complicated for us adults to detach ourselves from the mobile phone. And I do not underestimate the hangover in the use of mobile phones during the pandemic, but I believe that it is more important to bet on accompanying children to the correct use of a tool that has enormous potential, positively and, unfortunately, negatively. It is a balance very difficult to find, but we try. Rather I think of other interventions “.
Which?
“A trip, maybe three days in the Apennines or on the island of Elba, leaving the cell phone at home. It would be a great challenge. I’ll try.”