What happened when some Gordon Lee High School students surrendered their cellphones - Chattanooga Times Free Press

Todd Cassell, a teacher and manager astatine Gordon Lee High School successful Chickamauga, Georgia, has seen the numbing effect mobile phones person connected students.

Sometimes, if determination are a fewer minutes near astatine the extremity of a people period, Cassell tells students they tin speech among themselves oregon look astatine their phones -- which are taken up astatine the opening of each people to bounds distractions.

They astir ever take their phones implicit existent conversation, helium said.

Not lone that, but they instantly autumn nether the spell of telephone games, texts and societal media.

"It's dormant soundlessness successful here," helium said successful an interrogation astatine the schoolhouse past month. "I'll say, 'Y'all tin speech if you privation to,' and there's dormant silence. They won't talk to each other."

Cassell, 48, teaches a ninth people people that combines driver's acquisition and a program called High School Transitions, which teaches communications and survey skills. Part of the people is designed to get conversation-starved teens to talk, whether it's giving speeches oregon participating successful debates.

This year, Cassell resurrected an thought helium formerly tried respective years agone portion teaching mathematics astatine Heritage High School successful adjacent Catoosa County. Back then, helium offered students incentives to springiness up their mobile phones for a week.

This twelvemonth helium offered to fto students astatine Gordon Lee skip 1 of the mandatory speeches successful the High School Transitions people if they would springiness up their cellphones for 1 schoolhouse week, from Monday greeting until Friday afternoon. In a people of 17, helium had 9 takers, helium said.

Students are mostly alert of the terms they wage for mobile telephone dependency, helium said.

"One of the things that comes up each twelvemonth (in class) is the question, 'How tin I beryllium a amended student?' What tin teachers do, (what can) parents do, (what can) students do? They (students) ever bring up cellphones. The kids are precise alert of however galore issues cellphones origin them, time-wise, relationship-wise -- they know."

At Heritage High School, Cassell offered a points bonus connected students' last people for those who took the phone-surrender challenge.

"At the time, it was 2 weeks (without phones)," helium said. "I didn't person arsenic galore takers arsenic I thought. Out of 3 classes, I'd astir apt accidental determination were 20 (takers)," helium said. "I locked (the phones) successful a closet. We conscionable enactment them successful a container and locked them up."

Cassell said astir 80% of parents astatine Heritage responded positively to the experiment, but determination were a fewer parents who pushed backmost due to the fact that they wanted their children to person entree to their phones for information reasons.

Still, the students astatine Gordon Lee this twelvemonth who stuck with the telephone experimentation astir each began to spot affirmative results, helium said.

"I asked them, 'How did the week go?' There were a mates who said they were bored to death. But astir of them said it wasn't bad. They'd accidental things like, 'I had much clip with my family.'"

Cassell, who has a girl successful ninth grade, said that connected the uncommon juncture erstwhile helium takes her mobile telephone distant from her, begetter and girl really statesman to pass better.

"It seems similar we get on truthful overmuch amended aft astir 3 days," helium said. "(The students) said the aforesaid thing, (that) they were talking to their household much aft a fewer days, (and) they weren't successful their rooms arsenic much."

"Life Stories" is published connected Mondays. Contact Mark Kennedy astatine mkennedy@timesfreepress.com oregon 423-757-6645. Follow him connected Twitter @TFPcolumnist.