A Veteran Teacher Says Phones Are Behind Most School Problems

Hi everyone, screen time, smartphones, and all the rest is a topic that sparks a lot of debate in many families. We recently interviewed family coach and media expert Petra Trautwein, who said the number one cause of school problems is digital media.

After that interview, Diana reached out to us. She has been a teacher for more than 20 years, and she agrees with Petra Trautwein 100 percent. We asked her about it, too:

Diana, how long have you been teaching, and can you tell us more about the school where you work?

I've been teaching for 20 years. My current school is in a fairly rural area. Our student body is very diverse. We have a lot of kids with supportive families, but we also have plenty of kids who are growing up in difficult circumstances. Some families have recently arrived from Ukraine, Syria, and Afghanistan, so we have kids with immigrant backgrounds, too. In my current second grade, half the kids speak a different native language at home.

Let's talk about smartphones. At what age do the kids at your school get one, and why do they get them?

Mostly it's the fourth graders who have their own smartphone, but there are kids in first through third grade who already have their own device. The problem, as I see it, is that many kids get their parents' devices or an "old phone," and that way, or through tablets, they have access to the internet. They play Roblox, watch YouTube Shorts, or hang out on Instagram.

Often there are no controls or parental settings. Parents frequently have no idea where their kids are online, what they're doing there, or who they're in touch with. When parents give a reason for getting their child a phone, it's often being able to reach them. I think that's connected to a lack of trust, and to how unwilling we've become to let kids spend any time out and about unsupervised. If kids ride public transportation (which is often very unreliable where we live), an old basic phone with buttons does the job. It doesn't have to be a smartphone.

If it were up to you, at what age do smartphones make sense, and why?

We're part of the Hamburg parent initiative Smarter Start ab 14 (Smarter Start at 14). That means we're connected with other parents who also won't give their kids a smartphone until they're 14. I think by 14, kids are old enough to put a lot of things in context and understand them.

But even then, it's important to keep talking with them, and for us as parents to educate ourselves, too. Even at 14, I think teens still need some outside limits (quiet hours, for example). Plenty of adults can't resist the pull of the digital world, and that goes double for teenagers in the teen years. Parents setting an example matters a lot here.

You're right in the thick of it. Tell us what school problems too much phone use causes. You say it's the main reason for problems at school...

I'd broaden the question a bit, because it's not just the smartphone as a device. It's access to screens and the digital world overall. Everywhere I look, I read that kids' performance has dropped dramatically in recent years, that they struggle to concentrate, to stay on task, to learn to read... The list is long. And I see it dramatically myself.

Here's an example. At the end of every day, I read aloud to my class. At the start of first grade, my class couldn't listen for even two minutes. So I told fairy tales from memory, using my whole body and voice, so that the book wouldn't be standing between us. Little by little, I moved back to reading aloud. After the weekend, a lot of kids tell me they spent hours gaming. They lose themselves in digital worlds, and you can see how hard it is for them to come back to reality.

And what have you noticed? How have kids changed in recent years because of phones?

I see that concentration and attention have dropped sharply. Kids drift off, and it's hard to bring them back. I see kids in the older grades ask for the tablet right away during science and social studies projects when they're supposed to research a topic and I hand them a book instead. Then they're overwhelmed by something as simple as using the table of contents, and it all seems like too much work.

The quick click is just so much more convenient. The much lower frustration tolerance plays a role here, too. I'll never forget a fourth grader who told me he couldn't read at all and needed the tablet to read texts out loud to him. I sat down with him and we worked through a text about volcanoes (which he was very interested in) line by line. At the end of the day, he called out, thrilled and without a trace of irony: "I can read!"

Then of course there are very concrete problems that come out of class WhatsApp groups. Parents allow WhatsApp (everybody has it, after all), but they leave it to the school to sort out the conflicts that result. Nobody talks about how to behave in the digital space or what rules apply there.

What do parents tell you about their kids' phone use?

In the school setting, it's pretty rare for parents to bring up screen time or phone use on their own. For many of them, it's a given that kids use these devices, and they believe it's important to start early so their kids don't fall behind.

The parent nights we offer on this topic are only attended by the people who are already thoughtful and critical about it. What I run into more often is having to justify why I do NOT use a smartboard or tablets in my classroom.

I think of my classroom as an analog safe space where kids dig into the material and into the people learning alongside them. Without distraction. And while they're at it, they learn the most basic media skill, the one so many people lack today: reading. Reading with understanding, with comprehension, with a critical eye. For that you need a book and a person to guide you. Not an app and not a screen. Sparking a love of books is one of the most important parts of my job.

What do you think is the biggest danger when kids are on their phones without supervision?

I once read someone say that giving kids unsupervised access to the digital world is like dropping them off alone at the main train station in Frankfurt, with no help and no instructions. I think that's a very good picture.

With a few clicks, they can find disturbing pornographic or violent content, get in touch with dangerous people through platforms like Roblox (remember the network of sadists), or see uncensored videos from war zones.

It's also worth mentioning that even learning apps recommended by schools use reward systems whose effects on the brain have barely been studied. In general, if you want to educate yourself, it always makes sense to look at what brain research has to say about all this. And it's no coincidence that people who work in IT are often the ones who keep their own kids away from these devices the longest.

At a certain age, the line is, "But everyone else in my class has a phone!" How have you handled that with your own kids?

A good friend of mine was once asked how she managed to keep her kids phone-free for so long. She said, "Easy. I don't buy them." As soon as a phone or anything similar is in the house for the child, the arguing and the sneaking start.

I talk with my kids a lot, explain my reasons, and listen to them. My son got his first phone and his PC at 14. We don't have a PlayStation, Switch, or anything like that. He was okay with it, because he understood our reasons. He's now one of the best in his class in IT, which shows that kids don't need early swiping and scrolling to find their way in the digital world later.

Our daughter is 12. We're lucky that her best friend doesn't have a phone either. The two of them talk on the landline, totally old school. Still, my daughter struggles with the situation more than my son did. So she's allowed to text two chosen friends through WhatsApp on my phone.

I think it's important to take a clear stand on this, but also to keep talking with your kids, take their worries seriously, and find compromises so they aren't left out and can still take part. Parents also absolutely have to go along with their kids on their way into the digital world and look at what they're doing there.

Since I think that's too much for many parents, it would be good if basics like a minimum age for social networks were enforced by law. The use of digital media in preschools and schools should also be looked at critically and limited, with input from neuroscience. This issue is simply too important to leave to parents alone!