The Associated Press (“AP News”) reports that educators now find their tried and true lesson plans to no longer be enough to keep students engaged at a time of struggling mental health, shortened attention spans, reduced attendance and worsening academic performance. What’s at the crux of these challenges? Many say it’s an addiction to cellular telephones. Adults are new trying new strategies to reverse the malaise.
Ohio teacher Aaron Taylor’s high school English students tell him they don’t talk in class because they don’t want to be ‘canceled’ — a term applied to public figures who are silenced or boycotted after offensive opinions or speech. The divisive political climate in the United States often makes students unwilling to participate in class, when anything they say can rocket around the school in a messaging app.
Wilbur Higgins, lead English teacher at Dartmouth High School in Massachusetts, says that students get very quiet when topics such as sexuality, gender or politics come up in novels. He said that “eight years ago, you had hands shooting up all over the place” but “nobody wants to be labeled a certain way anymore or to be ridiculed or to be called out for politics.”
In Spokane, Washington, schools are ramping up extracurriculars to compete with cellphones after school hours, including an initiative launching this month known as “Engage IRL” (in real life), which aims to give every student something to look forward to after school, whether it’s a sport, performing arts or a club.
The AP News article may be read in full HERE.
My brothers and sisters, there is no simple answer to the problem of cellphones in our society, as they represent a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they provide great convenience, efficiency, a degree of safety, and the peace of mind in knowing that we can reach our loved ones in a moment’s notice; however, and on the other hand, they have been shown to become addictive to the point of creating personality disorders or inviting evil into our lives.
I am very thankful for, and find it interesting that, schools and parents are again discovering the value of extracurricular activities to round out and mature our children into the young men and women they are to become! I acknowledge that times were different, but I grew up in the 70s as a child who played outside all the time – riding my bike everywhere, mowing lawns, hanging out with my friends at school, and living for the joy of extracurricular activities such as band and little league baseball.
Because of relatively recent societal changes involving drug use, violence, and even traffic safety issues, children rarely go outside to play or socialize anymore, and often prefer, instead, to sit quietly at home glued to the screen of a cellphone surfing the internet or busying themselves with social media sites. Even going to the library to do research for a book report has been mostly replaced by all of the available information from the internet available with the pushing of a few keys on a cellular telephone (or personal computer).
Unfortunately, many social media sites are unwholesome and allow for misguided or unsupervised youth to bully or sexualize others. Constant interaction on these social media sites takes needed attention away from school assignments and in-person friendships which provide healthy personal interactions with others.
So, what can be done and who is responsible for corrective action?
The answer seems to be involvement and effort by all affected parties, with the understanding that the wisdom of the world alone will never be sufficient to bring the needed perspective, healing and joy into our daily lives. Beyond limiting and monitoring cellphone use at school and at home, our children need to have their lives, first and foremost, established in Christ Jesus. I will unashamedly stand on this until the day I pass from this earth, Jesus is always the Answer!
When a child – even a relatively young child – comes to understand how incredibly important he or she is to God, who created them in the very image and likeness of God, and who loves them more than words can express, and who has a plan for their lives that is GOOD and will bring joy to their lives, it changes the dynamics of the child’s family and home! A cellphone, hopefully, then becomes viewed as the tool it is, not as an idol and the primary connection to all things in life.
Although the evil one prowls the earth looking for whom he may devour, when families are grounded in Christ, a child’s need for outside affirmation via nasty websites and constant social media interaction on the cellphone is likely to be lessened, and if trouble comes, the child and his or her family can seek help and forgiveness from the Lord.
The wisdom of the world is foolishness to God!
If you are willing, let’s pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, we pray for our own families and for all of the children growing up today and attending school, that they know, or would come to know, Jesus as Savior. We ask that our children would learn to walk in the confidence and wisdom which only Christ can bring, trusting that as believers we have the mind of Christ, we have nothing to fear from the world, and that all things are possible with You. May our children trust in You and walk confidently in the understanding that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (see Romans 14:17)! Amen.
Let’s remember that according to the bible, as believers, we have the mind of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:16), we are the temple of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 3:16-17), and that we should always seek the wisdom of God – not the foolishness of the world (see 1 Corinthians 3:19)!
Here are the above-referenced scriptures:
Romans 14:17 (NKJV)
“…for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 2:16 (Amplified Bible)
“For who has known the mind and purposes of the Lord, so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ [to be guided by His thoughts and purposes].”
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (ESV)
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
1 Corinthians 3:19 (NLT)
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, ‘He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.’”