OCEN Covenant for Phone-Free Christian Schools
As Christian educators charged with nurturing the souls of our students, many of us have recognized the negative effects cell phone usage has had on students’ intellectual and spiritual development. But the good news is that this trend does not have to continue. The research of Dr. Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, shows that a collective and intentional effort among parents, churches, and schools can mitigate and even reverse the effects of cell phone usage on this generation.
About the Covenant
OCEN is offering our members the Covenant for Phone-Free Christian Schools to unite and raise public awareness of the growing movement of educators who believe in the benefits of phone-free schools.
After reading the testimonial of an OCEN school with a no-cell phone policy and some highlights of Dr. Jonathan Haidt’s research (below), carefully and prayerfully consider becoming a signatory.
Please know that OCEN honors and respects schools that decline to sign the Covenant in favor of alternate approaches to cell phone use in their facilities and classrooms.
Phone-Free School Testimonial
Negative Effects of Adolescent Cell Phone Usage
Student mental health occurrences, including anxiety, depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder, anorexia, and substance abuse, have dramatically spiked.
Occurrences of anxiety and depression in youth have more than doubled since 2010.
The decline of play-based childhood and the rise of phone-based childhood have coincided with this increase in mental health disorders.
To learn more, read The Anxious Generation by Dr. Jonathan Haidt.
OCEN’s Covenant for Phone-Free Christian Schools
Regarding Student Cell Phone and Technology Usage
After careful consideration and in keeping with our mission, our school covenants with other Christian schools and the larger Christian community to affirm the following:
- We are entrusted, as a Christian school, with the education and care of children who are dearly loved and created in God’s image.
- We must guard against anything in our school that would impede the nurturing of that image in each of our students or cause any of them to stumble in their growth as disciples.
- We believe the overwhelming evidence now available shows that students’ pervasive use of cell phones and screen technology, both within and outside of school, has brought devastating consequences. Both wisdom and research prove that phone and screen usage have radically affected our students’ minds, hearts, and spirits.
- We know half-measures attempting to address this situation in schools have proven ineffective. Partial limitation to phone or screen access during the school day has not been able to root out the problem of addictive and harmful behaviors among many students.
- We stand fast on the conviction that our minds are to be transformed by Christ rather than by electronic data points and images.
- We are called to lead in developing an effective response to the phone and screen risks that plague our students. The problem and its effects are so enculturated and pervasive that solving it requires a communal approach.
In light of these affirmations and as signatories to this Covenant among other Christian schools and the families and students we serve, our school pledges the following commitments:
- Our school will adopt a policy of maintaining an environment for students that is completely free from cell phones or other personal internet devices from the start to the end of the school day.
- Our school will cautiously introduce the use of school-owned technological and internet devices among students when a particular technology is the best method for executing a lesson.
- Our school will intentionally lead our faculty, families, and students to a greater understanding of the deleterious effects of screen usage on the spiritual, moral, educational, and social development of our students and community.
Lord, we ask for your guidance and aid as we make this mutual pledge for the benefit of the children you love. Grant us the ability to properly address the stumbling block of screen usage so that our students may grow in the nurture and admonition you lovingly provide.
