Recently, phone caddies at Grayslake Central High School have been playing more and more of a role in the learning environment. Phone caddies are designed to help limit or eliminate phone usage in the classroom. They are extremely controversial and have caused disagreement at GCHS. Do phone caddies cause more commotion? Do they help students have a better time learning? These questions that have become a part of the conversation surrounding phone caddie usage at Grayslake Central.
Most students will tell you that the caddies do not help the learning process. According to a poll on Rampage’s Instagram story of 98 students, , about 83% of students did not think phone caddies helped the learning environment. Cameron Munoz, a sophomore at GCHS admitted that most students probably are opposed to phone caddies. “From what I’ve seen most people don’t like it. They keep their phones out, they bring them out a lot,” he said. However, he made it clear that he doesn’t see it as a big deal. “I don’t really care that much [about phone caddies],” Munoz said. Students generally don’t like phone caddies, as they think they don’t help them to learn more or better in the classroom, although there are exceptions.
Even though there are so many students who are opposed to phone caddies there are still measures that the school takes in some classes. This might be because they supposedly limit distractions in the classroom. John Reifenberg, a social studies teacher at Grayslake Central said, “[It is] hard to [pay attention] you’ve got a device that’s designed to be distracting in its own way.” Lots of the apps and features that a phone has can be distracting as they are meant to grab your attention. Reifenberg thinks that can get in the way of the class environment. “ The reason we have school in person is to build those cue skills, to communicate with actual people that are sitting in front of us,” he said.
Reifenberg also said how staying off your phone for a while doesn’t just limit distractions, but can be a good thing.” I think that having some time away from [our phones] is actually a healthy thing,” he said. According to Reifenberg, students need to realize that there are times in the world when you won’t be able to use your phone. Because at some point in time in your life, you’re probably not going to be able to access or use that phone, when it’s like, oh my god, I’m in the middle of nowhere,” he said. He points out that it will not be good if a student has their first experience without access to their phone when they are an adult in hard times. Some teachers like Reifenberg also think it is problematic for a student’s future if they are too attached to their phone. “If you can’t handle it being 20 feet away for a short period of time, that’s a problem,” he said.
Some will argue that in society, phones are an essential aspect of modern life and are more of a tool than anything, but at the same time, there are times in which a phone should not be used. This makes the newer measure of the school phone caddies very controversial. Riefenberg even puts his phone in the caddie during class” I don’t think it’s fair to ask somebody to do something that I wouldn’t be willing to do,” he said about putting his phone away.
