Are there any elementary schools (either parochial, Christian or just regular) that have a culture of not giving your kids a smartphone u til u tol at least 8th/HS.
It's appalling to hear all of the recent research on the rewiring of kids brains with these devices so hoping to start our kids in a low tech no phone school until teen years. |
Schools can’t regulate when parents give phones to their kids. But a lot of elementary schools and k-8s do not allow phones at school. I would guess k-12 LS and MS might have similar restrictions, but DC went to a k-8 so I don’t know. Our k-8 had a strict no phone policy anywhere on school grounds, even after school while kids were waiting for pickup. |
I can only speak to Catholic schools. Frankly I think you are more likely to find this at a more conservative school. Heights for example, will definitely meet this criteria. At our somewhat conservative k-8, I do find a good amount of like minded parents. And of course phones are collected each morning so no phones during school. |
Many schools say no phones in school during the day (must be checked-in/kept in lockers). That is the policy at Holton (where my daughters attend) and Holton announced the HS will be no phones next year too.
But check whole tech policy: if kids are on laptops, that is a little bit of a distinction without a difference as kids can text, play games, surf the internet from computer (though not having phones at social times/class changing is a plus). |
My kid can do this in HS with the required MacBook but could not do so in MS at our k-8 with the school-provided Chromebook. They couldn’t log into their personal accounts if they had them, so no texting. Lots of websites were restricted and blocked. They did have a few games but if they were caught playing them outside of a couple of very specific times (like indoor recess if it was raining), they’d get a demerit. |
There have been a lot of recent threads here on low-tech/no phone schools. Search and you’ll find them! |
Waldorf. |
Many parents at Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School wait until kids have graduated to get phones. No phones allowed during the day at all. |