Former N.B. education minister regrets not banning cellphones in school
Education department says it's working on updates to cellphone policy
Former education minister Dominic Cardy regrets not banning cellphones in schools before he quit the job in protest in 2022.
In a post on X last week, he called it his "one big regret" as minister.
"I thought we needed to teach students to handle these incredible tools. I was wrong. They're a gift and a threat to all of us but, coupled [with a] decline in discipline, they're destroying classrooms."
When he was minister, Cardy said the evidence was more positive about cellphones and how they gave students "this incredible technology, which you can find every single thing that's ever happened to anyone, ever — all there, as far as the student was concerned, for free in their hands."
He said the evidence is now more clear that cellphones are a danger and a distraction for students.
Cardy said attention spans have dropped "from close to half an hour to under two minutes according to some studies — and 30 seconds according to others."
He said teachers "are recording over 300 interruptions per class per period" caused by cellphone notifications.
Then there are the well-documented dangers to students' mental health.
Cardy said there are "real dangers" caused by "other students being awful to them, adults being awful to them, the cyberbullying that we've heard a lot about, which disrupts learning."
He said social media has become a toxic place where companies and foreign governments "are intentionally pushing all sorts of rubbish into our phones, which our students are absorbing as well."
He said adults are having a difficult enough time distinguishing between real and fake posts, so how can children be expected to sort it all out.
Not to mention the algorithms that deliberately push viewers in a certain direction.
"And they're doing it to make money," said Cardy. "So we should not be using our public school system as a place to further enhance the vast profitability of American and Chinese social media companies, especially when they're causing us broader social damage."
N.B. updating cellphone policy
If he were still education minister, Cardy said he would follow the example of other school jurisdictions in Canada and ban cellphones — particularly for younger students.
New Brunswick appears to be considering it.
When asked directly if the province is considering a ban, the education department's communications officer said in an email, "The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has been working on updates to Policy 311 to address cellphone use in a more stringent way. The department will be bringing forward those modifications in the coming weeks."
Cardy said parents are also contributing to the problem.
"We have got parents who think they have the right to call their kids during class all day, who called the teachers during class. There are disruptions going on that are being caused by the families in addition to the kids' friends and outside sources."
He said it's a "social change" that society has allowed to slide in alongside technology.
"So let's have a timeout to figure out how we can use cellphones appropriately, and I think as a starting point should be how we use them as adults. And then we figure out how they can be used in the classroom."
Obviously, he said there will be exceptions — like for a student who uses technology to monitor health issues.
"But the vast majority of kids did manage to survive infancy, adolescence and all the way up to high school without being in constant touch with everyone — up till about 10 years ago.
"So I would bet, based on the entire history of the human race up to about 2012 versus now, we can probably get away with being in slightly less constant touch with each other without society falling apart."
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With files from Information Morning Fredericton