We’re calling it: Brooks School’s new cell phone/smartwatch policy is a success!

Since the start of the academic year, Brooks students have been required to be cell phone- and smartwatch-free during the academic day, in adherence to a new all-school rule instituted in September. By eliminating the distraction of those devices, administrators' goal was to support student health, increase student engagement and foster a deeper sense of community on campus.

Now, two months into school life with the policy, Director of Student Affairs Ingrid Knowles reports overwhelmingly positive results — academically and socially.

“We are seeing a lot more student engagement in the classroom setting,” she said. “We’re seeing more peer-to-peer interaction in ways that feel genuine. Spaces are loud in all the right ways.”

Data backs up that feeling. Last month, the school surveyed teachers about the policy and its impact. The results were striking:

• 100 percent of faculty reported that the policy has been “effective in increasing student engagement.”
• 98 percent confirmed that it has been effective in decreasing distractions and improving student behavior.
• 96 percent agreed the policy has been effective in strengthening our community.

And the students? According to the survey, faculty perceive that 71 percent of students have “responded positively” to the policy.

As Acting Head of School Nina Freeman told parents and guardians in her State of the School talk in Chapel during Family Weekend, “we are seeing the benefits daily and it’s validating to have done in this direction.”

Prior to the rollout of the policy — which requires that boarding students leave their devices in their room during the academic day, while day students lock cells and watches in their locker — Freeman noted that “this can only be successful if we all commit together.”

Providing support toward this resolve, the school brought in Max Stossel, founder of The Social Awakening, an organization that “helps teens, schools and parents survive and thrive in this digital world” to campus on October 4 to speak with teachers, students and visiting parents and guardians in three different sessions about some of the specific ways technology is designed to be addictive and distracting.

“We wanted to help explain the ‘why’ behind our policy from an outside perspective,” said Knowles. The student affairs leader wanted Brooks students to learn “more about how their phone works and how apps and other programs are structured to get them coming back for more. Knowledge is power!”

Meeting first with teachers during his day on campus (see below), Stossel was direct. Referencing a University of Chicago study that found people who have their phones in another room did significantly better on tests than people who have their phones even just off and in a pocket or a bag he said, “Academically, this is one of the no-brainer reasons to me why it makes sense to have phones to be away for the day.”

With students, during an assembly in the Center for the Arts theater (see below), he was similarly candid, addressing the negative effects social media has on teens’ self-esteem, social lives and mental health.

“I think the hardest part about growing up in the digital age today is that it's never been easier to run away from ourselves, and everybody's doing this collectively,” said Stossel. “The moment we walk into a room, we don't know who to talk to, feel awkward, and [we resort to the] safety blanket right here [of our phone].”

The pervasive filming of “anything awesome or awful or anywhere in between” the moment it happens makes it “like we seem to care more about using what's happening in front of us to get the likes, the views that get the attention, than we do about actually living our lives,” he said to the rapt audience of students. “And is that working for us?”

Wrapping up his campus visit with a session for parents, Stossel offered some tools to support phone- and smartwatch-free resolve at home, too: Encouraging families to focus on using social media as a tool, be intentional about creating device-free spaces that are fun, and offering family experiences that don’t rely on technology.

At Brooks, the efforts are working so far.

“The students I spoke with actually like it,” Knowles revealed when asked about pushback on the policy. “They were like, ‘Look around. People are talking to each other.'”

Even during one recent open house on a weekend evening when devices are permitted, Knowles said, “Fewer students were on their phones and they were naturally engaging in socializing and seemed to enjoy having real interaction.”