Arjen Lubach cracks down on absurd school phone policies

Arjen Lubach has in the new season of the night show He made a strictly necessary argument: get rid of phones at school, and especially in the classroom. Schools, politicians and especially parents, are you watching on your smartphone?

There are few things that hurt the eyes more than kids who are on their phones non-stop. Often, by the way, he copies the behavior of parents and grandparents, who shamelessly open their folder all day and are hardly accessible anymore. That’s where the main responsibility lies, but many parents make fallacies like ‘so I can’t communicate with my child’ and ‘everyone brings a smartphone to school’. The sad reality is that even kids in some elementary schools already have class apps, and that encourages bullying. But we strayed.

Arjen Lubach: Get rid of phones in class

Arjen Lubach focuses on classroom phones in high school, something many schools simply allow. There is no national policy, the schools themselves determine how they deal with smartphones and children. And it turns out that it is not a watertight system, there are only apparent solutions. Furthermore, it has been scientifically proven that measures like the ‘phone bag’ do not work, because the mere presence of your phone affects your cognitive ability.

“So we have to get rid of these attention-hungry addiction bombs,” argues Arjen Lubach. the night show. He cites a series of shocking studies and quotes a rector as saying “that children also have to learn to take responsibility for themselves.” But smartphones and apps have been deliberately made so addictive that this is a completely surreal idea. It’s not for nothing that the smart minds in Silicon Valley who make all this crap keep their own products away from their own offspring.

The smartphone becomes a social problem

In any case, addiction to smartphones is a social problem. Most adults are addicted, but they are expected to take some responsibility. Impossible business, much less with children. Just like against alcohol, they must be protected against addiction to phones and social media, sooner rather than later.

Arjen Lubach leaves in the field of the night show see that in several countries it is already prohibited by law to take a phone with you at school. Turn off your smartphone before school, put it in a safe, play it again after school. And guess what: not only the parents, but also the children are happy with the move, because they can simply concentrate better and have more social contact with their fellow students. We also add that this also reduces the risk of online bullying. In high schools, kids nowadays walk around with their backpacks on their heads, so they don’t get ‘caught’ and unintentionally appear on social media.

It’s time for a nationwide ban

that’s how they enter The evening show with Arjen Lubach a little more research. For example, it turns out that fewer phones at school lead to more physical activity during recess. This is not a superfluous luxury, because two thirds of young Dutch people get very little exercise. It also appears that weaker students have started to do better in schools where phones are banned.

Well, this is just a selection of the benefits mentioned. Smartphones should be banned in schools, but oddly enough almost everyone is against it, even the education party D66, which reacts cynically with “should we ban scratch paper too?”. GroenLinks calls it “politics of distraction” and PvdA talks about “boomerstalk”. Then there are also the education ministers, who give responsibility to the schools. They even call it “too long to make a law.” We say: watch the episode of The evening show with Arjen Lubach here Go back and sign all the petitions you find on this topic.