No cell phones in class: The Ministry of Education’s directive applies across Quebec until December 31. However, several schools have already taken initiatives to promote student concentration.
Hello gang! With a show of hands, who doesn’t have their cell phone right now? says principal Marquis Bradette to a group of 15 students from secondary schools 2 and 3 sitting at tables in the cafeteria.
Laughter. Apparently everyone used the break to check their cell phones.
So after two hours of deprivation, what’s the first thing you urgently need to see or do? It’s almost always Snapchat (to see if friends have texted me), Instagram (same thing), TikTok, or playing games like Clash Royal or Rise of Kingdom.
The director of the public secondary school Monique-Proulx in Warwick is in a good mood. He laughs with the students when he notices that his old phone doesn’t fit the devices in some of them’s hands.
You have the right during the break. However, once the bell rings and class starts again, they must leave their phone in the locker. This is already the rule here in this school.
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Marquis Bradette, principal of Monique-Proulx Secondary School in Warwick.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Myriam Fimbry
This is our third year and it is provided for in the Code of Conduct, specifies the Director. There is already a ban on cell phones in class unless the teacher decides to use them for pedagogical or other reasons.
“All in all, the ministerial directive only confirms that we can do what we have already done,” notes Mr. Bradette.
Several secondary school 5 students encountered in the hallway – Yohan, Antony, Olivier, Clovis, Félix and Benoît – immediately recognize the advantage of such a measure for concentration.
When you have it in your pocket, when you put it on the vibrator, you can hear it all the time, you’re always thinking about what message it might have. This causes you to lose a lot of concentration during class.
Another says he has attention deficit disorder. But it’s not just pills that can help. There are many other things I can do, like sleep and stop talking on the phone and social media. This helped my concentration a lot. I go there when I have to, for example to do research.
Where can you leave your device?
Leaving the phone in the locker seems to be the hardest part. Other schools opt for bags or baskets at the entrance to class. However, having devices in the same room still causes students to become distracted if some forget to turn off notifications.
“I have my cell phone in my pocket all the time,” admits Isabelle, a secondary school 4 student. I turn off the ringtone, I put it on night mode, it never rings, it doesn’t bother me, I don’t use it.
Several students, like Mathis, fear their cellphones will be stolen from their lockers, something the principal can’t remember happening before in this small school of 520 students.
Luna doesn’t take any chances: she keeps him with her anyway, to make sure he’s there.
If I don’t feel it is on me, if I don’t see it, I feel like I don’t know where it is. On the other hand, when I wear it, I know I have it. Then my cell phone is still important to me.
When students find strategies to avoid standing out, a beep or vibration sometimes gives them away.
Yes, that happens, Mathis admits. Then the teachers take it to the office, where it is returned to us at the end of the day.
The cell-free zone
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Teacher Étienne Bergeron is uncompromising when it comes to cell phones.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Myriam Fimbry
Étienne Bergeron greets every student he meets in the hallway. The history and geography teacher has a great bond with the young people, but is stubborn about the screens sticking out of his pockets.
During an hour that I let them work on their personal device, how many minutes did they spend wasting time choosing their songs and replying to a message? What I see is 50 minutes of wasted time!
With him we go to the school’s Pavilion D, a cell-free zone where certain lessons (music, history, ethics) and extracurricular activities (board games, creative laboratory) take place.
At the end of a narrow staircase we cross a kind of border, which is represented by a thick red line on the walls and ceiling.
In case we didn’t fully understand: There are laminated posters hanging all over the walls: Cell-Free Zone. You are in a zone of creativity and human contact.
Étienne Bergeron describes this place as a digital safe space. There are no videos posted online, no social media, no intimidating messages here. He notes that conflicts between students often begin online.
He also fears that the screen is a barrier to their learning and achieving their full potential. He sees the little eyes that are deprived of sleep, even in the middle of the week. He blames digital junk food, the irresistible source of endless distraction and entertainment.
Even as a teacher, he notices that attention spans decrease from year to year and he has to work harder to captivate his students.
We live in a world overstimulated by screens and applications. Through social media, the feedback – the reward – comes so quickly. You have to be very stimulating at the beginning!
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There can be many distractions on a cell phone.
Photo: iStock / Red Vector
The educational use of screens
Minister Bernard Drainville’s directive provides exceptions to the ban on cell phones in class for educational purposes.
Étienne Bergeron only makes one exception during the year. He invites his students to bring their phones to class to show them how to adjust social media settings. In other words, to provide digital education.
Joël Boivin, a secondary school 3 history teacher, has already been using quizzes in class using the online application Kahoot, downloaded onto students’ mobile phones.
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Joël Boivin, history teacher, put the Kahoot application aside because students took the opportunity to use their device for other purposes.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Myriam Fimbry
It’s interactive, young people like it, he says. But it caused problems. Sometimes I had to confiscate the phones because there was no time to use them. It’s uncomfortable, it’s not fun to deal with. Then there are other equally effective ways to study for a test.
This year he decided to take a stricter approach. No kahoot, no phones in class, not even in bags.
He feels that overall the instructions are well followed, although you will certainly sometimes see students who appear to be looking at something under their desks. But we can’t set up a camera either.
Even if you are a really good teacher. History, Jean Talon will never be as interesting as the new trend on TikTok.
Several teachers are divided and reluctant to express their opinion on the issue. Even if you are convinced that banning cell phones in class is a good thing, it is not always easy to set limits, monitor them and sanction them.
Basically like home. Parents struggle with this problem. It also happens that a screen is sometimes very useful to have peace of mind.
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Karine Courchesne, an English teacher, notes that video games have helped some of her students become “virtually bilingual.”
Photo: Radio-Canada / Myriam Fimbry
“There are teachers who want their students to have cell phones close to them,” says Karine Courchesne. And she understands them.
For example, a young person who has finished an exercise is not disturbed by conversations with others, because by using his cell phone, listening to music, whatever, he is not talking, he is in his place. This allows us to help those who need it. And so it becomes much easier at the management level.
Myriam Fimbry’s report on this topic will be presented on the show All terrainBroadcast HERE PREMIERE on Sunday at 10 H.
Music, a source of calm
Which raises the following question: Will Bernard Drainville’s directive be accompanied by measures to provide more help with classroom management and struggling students?
Mari-Lou, 15, and her two best friends Sarah and Laurence, both 14, believe they have the solution. They believe that students should be allowed to listen to music at certain times. They very eloquently claim that it promotes concentration.
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Music tempers morality, argue Sarah, Mari-Lou and Laurence.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Myriam Fimbry
If everyone had their own headphones, it would be better because we wouldn’t be disturbing, we wouldn’t be inclined to talk to our friends, to be distracted by everything, they argue. We would have our bubble and do our things.
Arthur Sylvain, 17, dropped out of secondary school and is now attending adult education.
He says he suffered from anxiety and attention deficit disorder and was bullied during high school. Music enabled him to get through his school day.
Having my phone with me really calmed me down. If I had a tantrum or was too stressed, I could ask to leave class and then go listen to music in peace.
Even in class, despite the ban, he wore headphones in one ear, which he hid under his long hair. I didn’t listen to music loudly to manage my stress and concentrate.
His father Mathieu Sylvain, who develops online education platforms such as Nethmath, supports the ban on cell phones in class while defending the autonomy of every teacher.
He’s like a boat captain, a teacher, he illustrates. It’s his boat, it’s his class. He is the one who determines how to make it work.
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Mathieu Sylvain with two of his children. Arthur, 17 years old (middle), attended Monique Proulx Secondary School.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Myriam Fimbry
According to the ministry’s policy, students with special needs like Arthur could benefit from an exception. However, it is still necessary to demonstrate the need.
The reality is that they do not make exceptions, believes Mr. Sylvain. It requires steps, work, parents need to intervene.
The principal of the Monique Proulx Secondary School, Marquis Bradette, believes it is entirely possible to grant exceptions and include them in an intervention plan for a student with learning difficulties, ADHD or a language disorder. Autism spectrum. But it needs to be framed, the square of sand needs to be demarcated. We must distinguish between a need and a want.
Take down screens outside of class
The Monique Proulx High School is already going beyond the instructions of the Ministry of Education with its Pavilion D, which is visited outside of school hours.
In the creative laboratory, Étienne Bergeron tries every lunchtime to ignite a spark in his students’ eyes.
With robotics, home automation, digital drawing, 3D printers and video game creation workshops, he aims to spark other interests in young people that can compete with the passive entertainment of the phone.
There are two teachers who run this technology lab independently, with the help of some K-5 high school students. Mr. Bergeron doesn’t feel like he has much to teach the young people, who learn quickly, find online tutorials and get on with their own.
They are able to use digital sensibly, he says. They have all the necessary energy, vigor and imagination. If we can ignite the spark, intrigue them, amaze them, I bet that when they get home, instead of playing, instead of checking social media, they might look for tutorials and listen to things will that will nourish them and teach them things.