At least 31 states and the District of Columbia restrict cell phones in schools
New York City teachers say the state’s recently implemented cell phone ban in schools has showed that numerous students no longer know how to tell time on an old-fashioned clock.
“That’s a major skill that they’re not used to at all,” Tiana Millen, an assistant principal at Cardozo High School in Queens, told Gothamist of what she’s noticed after the ban, which went into effect in September.
Students in the city’s school system are meant to learn basic time-telling skills in the first and second grade, according to officials, though it appears children have fallen out of practice doing so in an increasingly digital world.
There’s concern that young people have very poorly developed analog knowledge. Humans usually learn better by combining sensory inputs, such as learning better by writing things down or tying things to memories. Smells famously tie into memories very well. By only typing, and having very little connections to the real world in the context of learning, there is the fear that they will learn less and also not be able to learn, since they are lacking those sensory connections. They also have horrible handwriting, probably spelling as well due to autocorrect. This is practically not a problem, but if the next generations grow up not knowing “how to language”, that is probably not ideal.