A primary source of today’s much discussed mental health “crisis” among young people, is immediate access to mobile devices and the toxic social media apps that typically accompany them. That’s why each morning at arrival at Vertex Partnership Academies, our virtues-based, public charter high school in the Bronx, each student deposits ALL of their devices (e.g. cell phone, AirPods, smart watch, etc) into his or her personalized Yondr pouch. That pouch is then locked by the school, and unlocked by the school at the end of the day.  When Vertex defeated the teacher’s union and opened in 2022, we allowed student access to cell phones during the day, trusting that kids would have the self control to turn them off or not use them. In retrospect, a bad move. When we changed the policy for 2023-24, there was some initial student howling at the beginning of the year. But now, just a few weeks into the school year, it’s incredible how much less drama there is, how much less time students spend in the bathroom, how much less distraction there is and how much less time is spent by teachers futilely policing phones, AirPods, watches, etc that somehow find a way to be used by kids. But more importantly, it’s incredible how much more focused the students are, and how much more calm the learning environment is. As far as we can tell, the kids not only don’t miss the devices. They also appreciate not having the peer pressure of having to deal with the typical nonsense that social media brings into their lives. We have created an oasis. We are also teaching them that they can actually survive without the devices every minute of every day. And heaven forbid, they can actually have in person conversations, human to human! As the great economist Thomas Sowell says, there are no solutions, only tradeoffs. One could argue that there are some limited benefits of allowing cell phone use during the day such as the ability for parents to reach their child or the ability for students to do research. But if a parent or guardian calls, a school aide can immediately access their child. There are always practical solutions. The benefits of no devices far outweigh allowing any access during the day. These little details are how we are trying to build a strong, academically focused school culture. Lessons learned from @JonHaidt @tombennett71 @Doug_Lemov @Miss_Snuffy @rpondiscio For more on the consequences of excessive use of devices and social media by young people: thefp.com/p/why-the-mental-h… @AEIeducation