As more communities consider banning phones from schools, both students and teachers alike are praising the bans.

From The Midwesterner. Improved focus, higher quality family time, more social interaction, and less anxiety are all products of a week-old cell school phone ban in Iowa that’s convincing officials there to spread the good news.

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“Do it. Do it. It’s not as bad as you think,” Gateway High School Principal Aaron Ruff said, offering advice for schools considering limits on student cell phone use. “I think parents are well aware of what cell phones are doing to their kids. They’re seeing it at home. I think parents are behind this.”

Ruff and others in the Ottumwa Community School District recently explained to KCRG how the learning experience has improved since students were required to lock their phones away this year, following several other area districts and schools that have implemented similar policies. …

The new policy requires students to lock their phones in a cabinet during school hours, and the results after just one week speak for themselves. …

“I think my attention has kind of skyrocketed if that’s the word,” Gateway senior Madison Shoop said. …

The change, she said, has also improved her family life.

“I just think I was so addicted to it that it was hard for me to look away personally, for me to look away like I would just be scrolling and scrolling and scrolling scrolling. At points in time when my mom talked to me, like, I couldn’t hear because I had my headphones in, I was scrolling through my phone, and I wasn’t paying attention,” she admitted.

It was a similar situation for Gateway freshman Paizlee Thomason.

“I’ve been hanging out with my family, actually,” Thomason told KCRG. “I’m usually just locked up on my room.”

Data from the Pew Research Center last year found 46% of teens said they’re online “almost constantly,” up significantly from the 24% who said the same in 2015. Pew Research this year found 72% of U.S. high school teachers consider cellphones a major problem in the classroom, while Edweek.org has correlated those issues with poor academic performance. …

In Ohio’s Akron Public Schools, those benefits have created a “significantly better, friendlier, and safer” school day for students since the district made the change last year, WOIO reports. …

The result there was less fights and better grades. …

Experts studying the issue seem to agree, pointing the Financial Times to a wave of positive results in both conservative and liberal communities that suggest the political tides have turned against cell phones in schools. …

What do you think of phone bans in schools? Share your thoughts and prayers below.

(Excerpt from The Midwesterner. Photo Credit: Marjan Grabowski on Unsplash)