School cell phone bans are a distraction. The real crisis isn't in your kid's hand. | Opinion
Banning phones won't turn back the clock on childhood. It will just widen the gap between the kids who have and the kids who don't.
Dear parents, every August, we buy the pencils, we pack the lunches and we tell ourselves we’re ready. But as another school year begins, I want to ask you to take a breath – and look past the headlines.
Because if you believe what you’re hearing, the biggest threat to our kids’ future is in their pockets. Banning phones in schools, they say, will cure anxiety, raise test scores, restore childhood.
I understand the instinct – I’m a father myself. But I’ve also been a teacher, a principal, a senior education advisor to former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio who oversaw the country's largest school system – and now the president of an education company. And I’m telling you: this is a distraction. Of course we don’t want kids using their phones throughout the school day without purpose and intentionality. But the real crisis isn’t in your kid’s hand. It’s in their reading scores.
Right now, one third of American eighth graders can’t read at the National Assessment of Educational Progress "basic" testing benchmark. In some districts, the numbers are even worse. This isn’t a new problem – it’s just one we keep refusing to face head-on. Instead, we reach for easy fixes, fueled by nostalgia and fear. But banning phones won’t turn back the clock on childhood. It will just widen the gap between the kids who have and the kids who don’t.
Here’s what I’ve seen in the classroom: when you take away cell phones, you don’t create equity – you erase it. In underfunded schools, smartphones are calculators, translators, research tools and sometimes the only reliable internet connection a student has. For multilingual learners, for kids without Wi-Fi at home, that device is a lifeline. When we ban it, we’re not protecting them – we’re pulling up the ladder.
Not all screens are created equal
Let’s be honest. The anxious generation isn’t our kids – it’s us. We’re the ones struggling to navigate a changing world, grasping for control. But our children don’t need us to fear the future. They need us to prepare them for it.
That means leaning into digital literacy, not running from it. It means investing in the tools and teaching that help kids learn how to use technology wisely. And it means addressing the root of the problem – not the symptom – by giving every child access to the kind of reading instruction, books and support they need to thrive.
I believe in meeting kids where they are – because that’s where real learning begins. Not all screens are created equal, and the goal isn’t to eliminate technology but to use it wisely. There’s a big difference between passive consumption and purposeful practice.
Research shows that just 15 to 20 minutes a day of focused, high-quality reading can drive real progress – especially when it’s supported by tools that are engaging, accessible and grounded in how kids actually learn. That’s the idea behind many of the resources we build at Mrs Wordsmith, a company of which I'm president and where we use cell phones and other nontraditional approaches to teach students how to read.
This school year, don’t let the conversation get hijacked. Ask your school leaders the hard questions, such as how are you teaching reading? How are you using technology to support learning? And what are you doing to ensure every child has the skills and knowledge to thrive in school and beyond?
Our kids deserve better than blanket bans and wishful thinking. They deserve an education built for the world they’re actually going to live in.
Brandon Cardet-Hernandez is a member of the Boston School Committee and the president of Mrs Wordsmith.