The Anxious Generation: The Case for Phone Free Schools & How Teachers Can Combat the Attention Economy

Why Your Smartphone Policy May Be Destroying Your School Culture

Is your classroom filled with anxious, distracted students who can't handle minor setbacks? Research shows technology is rewiring their brains, and not in a good way.

In this essential episode, discover the stark difference between phone-free and phone-accessible schools, learn how the "attention economy" deliberately creates addiction, and get practical strategies for every grade level to build resilience and focus without fighting constant battles over devices.

Key Insights:

• Why the "attention economy" is deliberately engineered to hook young minds
• Four neurological impacts: social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction
• Grade-specific strategies that work even without school-wide phone bans
• Evidence-based activities that build resilience through appropriate risk-taking

Whether you're witnessing technology's toll firsthand or concerned about rising student anxiety, these actionable approaches will help you create an environment where students can develop the social skills and emotional regulation they desperately need.

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Transcript

 Welcome back. Okay. This week is a must listen, I would say, and a double down if you are a parent. This week I'm gonna talk about something I think about so much, and I finally took the time to really dig into some research to. Make sure that what I was telling you wasn't just, you know, anecdotal, what I've noticed, especially substitute teaching, but already in the classroom, you already know this, Reese, especially if you've been teaching more than a few years, you are starting to notice that students seem ever more anxious, distracted, less resilient.

You know, it was not. Distance learning. It is not that, it, it, it's the technology. I'm just going to tell you that. Have you ever felt like you know, this weight of trying to support kids who struggle to handle the smallest setbacks when you're trying to fight off? Your own exhaustion. Honestly, you're not alone.

It seems to be this universal thing. And we are gonna really look at today what technology is doing to the brains of students and what more importantly, 'cause I'm all about the empowerment, what you can do at school to help with that. Le, we have students six, seven hours a day. We can make a big dent in this if we really all band together and try and, especially if you're a parent, I want you to listen to this because this is something I have struggled with.

We all know the biggest arguments we have with our kids are over technology. How much time or what sites. All those things. So buckle up. Um, I got some research, I got some ideas, and I got lots of things you can start doing differently in your classroom, even if. Your school will not administer a no phone policy.

And please start advocating for a no phone policy. But even if your school is unwilling to do it, there are still things you can do and there are plenty of things you can do in your home. We're gonna get right into it. Looking at some of the top research and see you on the inside. Welcome to the Teacher Self-Care and Life Balance podcast, where we focus all things personal development to help teachers feel empowered to thrive inside and outside of the classroom.

If you are passionate about education, but tired of it taking over your whole life, you have found your new home in the podcast universe, you'll love it here. I'm Grace Stevens, your host, and let's get going with today's show. All right. I am gonna get straight to the first thing in case I lose people a few minutes in.

Here's something really important. Here's a conversation. You know, my kids are in their late twenties now. If I were to start again with technology with them, here's what I would've made them do. Number one, okay? It wasn't around at the time, so let yourself off the hook. If you haven't done this with your kids, it's not too late.

Number one, before they get a smartphone. They need to go watch on Netflix. Watch it together as a family, the social network. Watch it, watch the social network. Watch how phones, just like cigarettes, were engineered to be addictive with nicotine. Um, smart technology is engineered to be. Addictive dopamine hits all the things.

It is engineered to be addictive. It is engineered to be predatory that if you stop using it, then they up the ante in the algorithm to get you sucked in. Okay? Just a fact. I would also together as a family, go Google what is the attention economy. Okay, the attention economy. So the attention economy is this idea basically that human attention, which obviously is a limited resource, has become a commodity, right?

A commodity. It's how businesses. Make money the longer you are engaged with them, even if that's just scrolling on social media, looking at different memes. The longer you are on an app, the longer you are on YouTube, right? All of these things, the longer you are involved, people make money off you, even if you are not.

You know, buying stuff, which we all know that we all were on Facebook and Insta to see our friends, and now it's hard to even find a post from a friend. It's all, you know, algorithmic based suggestions of things that you would love. I. Okay, so social media is the prime example of it. Trying to just get people engaged, coming back for more content creators, bloggers, YouTube's, influencers, you know, it's all the attention economy.

Trying to get more views, trying to get more attention. Okay. It leads to all kinds of issues, you know, distraction, constant pursuit of attention. We know this with students. Oh my goodness, I, I have to put on a cabaret act. A cabaret act, keep kids' attention, right? They've been holding that iPad in their hands since they were two, watching Coco Melon or whatever.

I get infuriated when I see in the grocery store, the kid holding the phone, you know, they're not even old enough. They're sitting in their little front part. They're not old enough to, you know, even walk by themselves or be trusted in a store. But you just trusted them with technology. Like, what are you doing to their developmental brains?

You know, manipulation and addiction, right? It is totally addictive. And then there's this kind of, I wanna see erosion of trust, right? Constant pressure to capture attention can lead to businesses, just, you know, prioritizing engagement over accuracy. I know myself, I was involved in TikTok for a while. Try to keep it upbeat, try to give solutions, listen, something positive, empowering.

Does not get any attention. I'm, I'm telling you, I know this myself. Once in a while, I always say something, click bakey or click beaty, or controversial. Very rarely, 10 times the engagement. It has been proven negative headlines get 10 times more engagement than positive ones. So first off, do we want our children exposed to all of that?

Probably not. Now, the problem is, is that now we are in a classroom where every other student, every child has been exposed to that. So what are we gonna do? So, um, I have some, a book I want to talk to you about, um, the researchers from Jonathan, hate. You might have heard from him. I know it's an awful word, right?

Hate height. I don't know. Never know how to say it. I should know. Um, sorry. Um, but it's H-A-I-D-T. He's a social psychologist and a professor of ethical leadership, um, in New York's, um, university Stern School of Business. So I first came interested in his work back in 2006. He. Um, published his research and some other stuff.

Um, the, the Happiness Hypothesis, if you've read Positive Mindset Habits for Teachers, I referenced that in that he talks about winning the cortical lottery. Like some people are born with this kind of glass half full, more optimistic gene and some people aren't. And he terms it as well. Either you won the quarter court lottery or you didn't.

And so my whole book. Positive mindset habits for teachers were, how do you, you, you are not stuck with what you were given from biology. Um, and you can hack your happiness. 50% of your happiness quotient comes. From not external circumstances, there's only 10%. But I know that's hard to believe, right? Only 10%.

Um, a lot of people tell me at that point, Hey, let me win the lottery. I bet you it'll be more than 10%. But no, it's these habits, intentional habits, and that's what the whole, um, my whole Happy Habits book. My whole Happy Habits course. I have a year long course where you can get work on one tiny micro habit a week.

That's where that all came from. Anyway, so he wasn't the only research I looked at in that book. I looked at many, many thought leaders in that area. But anyway, so you might have heard his name from me before, but he co-wrote a book and I'm sure hopefully you've all heard of it. It only came out in 2024, but it has, um.

Really sparked a lot of conversation and that is, it's called the Anxious Generation. And so let me tell you real briefly what he talks about and I found it kind of, I don't wanna say triggering. Yeah, I did find it triggering because I have two children. Um. They won't mind me saying we've all str struggled with anxiety.

But one of my children in particular, um, had what we would say a constellation of, um, challenges when she was a child and she was born in 1996 and so this smart technology, I have to say when I was reading it, he really keeps talking about this big banner year being 2010. I, I don't even know if I found it reassuring or not.

I was like, oh no, she was anxious before then. She had issues before then, so it wasn't something I did with allowing her to hold a phone. Um, I just, we had one of the, um, the razors, you know, like, gosh, the technology was kind of dinky back then, but still I was right with guilt. But let me tell you about the book.

Okay. Real briefly, the anxious generation, he delves into this alarming rise in youth mental health issues, and he attributes much of this trend to the pervasive influence of smartphones and social media. Right? He talks about two things that were happening at the same time, which is that we as parents, were not letting our kids out to play as much.

Totally, totally legit, right? We know this. We were all like, you get kidnapped or it isn't safe, or we always laugh right about our own childhood. I dunno how old you are. I'm 60. So certainly growing up in the seventies it was, you know, go, go outside, don't come home till it's dark. Um, just. Go outside and play.

We would never have had that paradigm with our children. So at the same time that we were not letting kids go out and play and kind of get a little risky on their own, we were double downing on being, being like really protective of them at the same time, around 2010, the surgeons of the smartphone. That made everything so much easier and how this has led to in some, honestly, I'll get to the statistics, but they're very depressing.

Um huh, that's funny. Um, that depression and anxiety, especially in girls, um, and suicides have really dramatically increased. So anyway, so let me tell you kind of in part one, he talks about this tidal wave, this surge of suffering and the sharp increase in mental health problems, particularly between 2010 and 2015.

And then he talks about how we dec decline the decline of play-based childhood, right? How real world play is really important for fostering resilience and social skills. And we have seen that been taken out of first parents getting more. Um, concerned about letting their kids play outside, but it's also been taken out schools, he doesn't talk about that as much, but we all know it has been taken out schools.

I was thrilled recently when I was in tk, um, for almost three weeks how much play-based was happening, but we know recess is being taken away. All those things. Okay, so not great. And then, um. He really talks about children needing to learn and grow through taking risks during play. So we are gonna talk about, at the end, I'm gonna get into some strategies.

How can you get that back in the classroom? And he is not talking about risks like getting hurt, but we'll talk about it. All right? And then, um, he talks about puberty and this block transition to our. Um, adulthood where progression to adulthood is being obstructed because we are not letting kids figure stuff out for themselves.

Okay? All right. So then he talks about all this great rewiring of the brain that, um, smartphone use, social deprivation, sleep deprivation, tension, fragmentation, and addiction. Right? These are the four proven really, um. Kind of, I don't even wanna say unintended. They were unintended from a parent or a teacher perspective.

I'm not sure if you go watch the Social Shore Network, um, you see that many, um, people who were, um, many of the engineers who were instrumental in creating this technology, um, now have some deep regrets that they did not understand what they were creating would have these. Unintended effects. Even though, even though the attention economy, even though the algorithm, even though the keeping of attention is planned, right?

That was absolutely engineered into it. But this now we have these four big issues, social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction. Okay? Addiction to technology is real. Then it talks about why girls, um, while the social media in particular has a more harmful effect on girls than boys, right?

Really they've had a very increased rates of depression and anxiety or the comparison, right? We know the filters and there is not real, what you're seeing. People only showing their best day and their best angle and the photos of photoshopped and filters, and it's an unrealistic expectation. Um, and then he talks about while boys in the digital age, they have more issues with regard to game addiction and social isolation, right?

You have teenage boys, you can probably draw the conclusion in your own household. And, um, overall, he talks about this spiritual emptiness that happens with too much. Ah, technology. So anyway, if you're interested, it's very research based. He has a whole website with all kinds of supporting, um, things, anxious generation book.com.

You can go there, you can, you can dig into it. Okay. But. What we wanna talk about is what we can do in the classroom and at school. So I'm gonna share, first off, I'm gonna share an experience I had. I went to my first, um, teaching, substitute teaching assignment. I. For high school. I had never taught high school before, and I'm not gonna lie, I was like, oh wow, what's this gonna be like?

It's gonna be a whole bunch of kids, right? Because you know that you're gonna have, you know, five or six different classes and, um, okay. Now don't laugh at this, but they're all gonna be way taller than me. Um, if you know me, you know that kids are taller than me by fourth or fifth grade. Um, I'm. Anyway, I didn't, just didn't know what to expect and it was a part of town, um, that can be potentially be rough.

So I didn't know about that. Honestly, just being honest, I was nervous. So I went, got to the school, got a brief orientation, sent me off to the room. Fun fact, they had no extra keys. Oh, well, yeah. Uh, you know, I was, what if I need to put the bathroom on break? But as it turned out anyway, um, there were a bunch of portables, but.

They were very well loved. I could see they had been painted, they had flowers outside. It seemed like this school had an awful lot of pride, and I was thrilled. And these portables were all like in kind of these rows. So let's say there were five on one side and then five on the other, and you were facing each other.

And there were like three rows of these. It was quite a big school. But anyway, when I stood to open the door for the kids, it was about five minutes before the bell went, I went and opened the door to stand there to greet the kids. Um, and I was kind of laughing like, is that what they even do in high school?

Do they just expect the kids to come in? But you know, I'm used to the littles when I stood outside. Good Lord. When I stood in that doorway, every teacher was standing there with a smile welcoming the students in, so that was great. Anyway, the kids came in and, um, the lesson plans had said, all the lesson plans said to me is they have an assignment in Google Classroom Champion, and they come, they open it up.

There is no assignment in Google Classroom. And I honestly, I even checked with the nerdy looking kids who would've been me in school, like, are you having me on? Luckily I know how Google Classroom works. There was literally no assignment there. Oh, now what am I gonna do? Um, so it was 10th grade English and um, yeah, it was okay.

Oh no wait, there was an assignment. Hold on, stop the bus. I, I'm, no, that was the next school. There was no assignment. There was an assignment. I take it back. There was an assignment. It took 'em five minutes. It was like literally two sentences. Okay. So in that two sentences, I managed to get role done and kids were really helpful.

I'm like, I'm gonna say someone's name wrong. I'm gonna do this. But they, they all seemed chill anyway, once the first kid said, I'm done now what? And I said, well, what's your teacher usually let you do? And I looked around the room. There were books by Shakespeare. There were all class sets of. Books, like, I'm not gonna, oh yeah, go open up Hamlet and take a quick read.

So like, you know, do you have a book with you? Can you, you know, what can you do? I said, I don't mind what you do, as long as it's kind of productive, quiet. At this point, I was only gonna have 'em for 50 minutes. And so these kids, some of them you know, had their dinky Chromebooks. They were like, well, can we go to some other sites?

And I said, well, what sites? And they were like, just, you know, whatever the teacher lets us use. And I said, well, do you have some kind of filters on there? Oh yeah, okay, whatever. So I start wandering around and I start seeing what kids are doing. Some kids start talking quietly. A group of boys said to me, can we play Uno?

The heck? I don't care. I'm like, yeah, you, you do it quietly. They were smart. They were having a good time. Um, one kid was doing, um, origami and showing another kid how to do that and asked me if they had a piece of paper. Um, one girl took out crocheting. I didn't care. She was following a pattern and it was, she was making one of those little animals that seemed pretty complicated.

Okay. She was happy with that. Another bunch of kids asked for a blank piece of paper and they opened up the Chromebook and they were looking at pictures and they were drawing anime. Okay, another group of boys, and I'm telling you, these boys had to be all over six feet and they were playing some game where they were guests in the flags and they knew way more.

They asked me over and they were like, here, like, how can you do, oh my gosh, they beat me so much. And I said, how do you know all these flags? And they're like, oh no, we're soccer fans. And they wanted to talk to me about soccer. Okay, so this happened five times during that day. Okay, that every class came in and I already knew, oh no, they're gonna be done in five minutes.

And so I did scramble to try find something else for them to do, but they were all able to do something relatively, you know, quietly engaging with other students. Um. What I would say, not terribly educational, but they, they were not zoned out. They were engaged, they were interacting with each other. Um, I was laughing.

I said, oh, the only stickers I have, I said, you guys like anime? I have anime stickers. Usually with me today, I only have cats. And some of the girls were like, we like cats. And then they were all sorting out what cat sticker they wanted. They were just like this great bunch of kids. And I noticed they all had this, um, neoprene kind of like sack with them.

And I said, what is that? You are all carrying that around? And they all said, oh, those are our phones. And I said, tell me about that. They're like, oh, when we get on campus, we put our phone in it and it gets locked. And at the end of the day, um, we come to any teacher, um, everybody, the office, the teachers, they all have big magnets that unlock them.

Okay. And the kids were just carrying 'em around and that was it. Alright, champion. I go home and I'm like, oh my gosh, why did I not teach high school? These kids are lovely. So next day an assignment pops up. Bit last minute, well paying, it's literally a mile away from the other school and it's high school.

Um, yeah, sure, let's go. Oh, my word. When I got there, this building was like college campus, just beautiful. The resources and money this school had and it was a charter school. Incredible, incredible. But it only served a certain demographic population of students. Um, first generation to go to college in a certain ethnic background.

Okay. Totally support that mission. Okay, love that. Love. That wasn't my ethnicity. I dunno if that's part of why I had a hard time that I stood, stood out like a sore thumb. But anyway, I thought this can be easy. When I showed up, they hand me a laptop and they were like, the sub plans are on there. Um, okay.

Good luck. Didn't know how to turn on the technology. Finally got another teacher to help me in came the first class. They were all wearing earbuds. They were all on their phones. I couldn't, I could not even say ro, I could not even like, excuse. Stop. Like, take, listen. I need your names. I wasn't about to hand around the sheet.

Check yourself off anyway. Totally different culture. Let me just say, there was no assignment in Google Classroom. It did say they have an assignment in Google Classroom. That was the place where there was no assignment. And, um, three kids at that point, um, expressed to me that this was an f-ing waste of time and walked out, which was an issue.

'cause I didn't know who they were. And I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait. What are your names? Like if the, there's a fire alarm, like if there's hate to save, there's a lockdown. Like I'm responsible for knowing who's in the room. It was such a different vibe. It was awful. Those students were awful to me and they were pretty horrible to each other when they even engaged, but mostly none of them engaged.

Mostly they just sat and stared at their phones. They had their earbuds in. When I said, can we take our earbuds out now the teacher lets us. I called the front desk and I said, what is your policy? I had asked 'em on the way in, what is your policy on phones? And they said, you know, whatever. The teacher decides, well, they didn't.

I really wasn't feeling confident enough to say, Hey, I'm the teacher today. I'm deciding you're not doing it. 'cause there was literally no other work to give them. So anyway, it was really mind blowing to me. The difference in, um, the other school, and I know I'm generalizing just anecdotally, one school kids are relaxed, relaxed.

They were relaxed, they were engaging with each other. They were able to amuse themselves. The other school, there was a lot of tensions. When I asked who'd left the room, kids pretended they didn't know the name of those students. Um, they seemed a little maybe intimidating. I dunno. Anyway, here's that. So anyway, I was already thinking about this, which is why I picked up the anxious generation.

Like what on earth is going on? So that's my anecdotal evidence. So number one, you know what I'm gonna advocate for? We should have no phones in school. Now somebody's gonna say, what about. You know, kids might need Google Translate or they might lead this. Let them do it in a Chromebook. I understand a Chromebook is also technology, but it has really, you know, at least on the Chromebook, your district can manage what they have access to.

When I was in the other school, and some kids were on YouTube, but I said, isn't YouTube blocked? And they said, oh no, we can always find a way around it. But then when I watched what they were looking, one guy was looking at apartments. I'm like, oh wow, where's that? And he was like, Dubai, I wanna grow up and be a realtor in Dubai and.

They like nobody was looking at really bad stuff. Um, I have to tell you that the average age, go Google it. It was in some documentary, so I don't think it was in the social network, but some poor parents were being confronted with the fact that the average age, that, um, I'm not even saying teen boys have exposure to pornography.

Um, it's pre-teen boys. Pre-teen boys now in America is the age. Boy start looking at pornography so there's another issue. So yes, for sure. Your school server's gonna block that out. Okay, so what else can we do? What else can we do? Um, other than ban the phones? 'cause your school district might not be up for that.

Okay. Let me give you just one quote that really struck with me. Um, experience not information is the key to emotional development, right? Kids aren't getting these skills of being resilient, um, and amusing themselves because they need experience, not. Information and people don't get depressed when they face threats.

Collectively, they get depressed when they feel isolated, lonely, or useless. That was a direct quote from the book. So are your kids feeling isolated, lonely, and useless? Um, what a horrible, horrible thing. So we gotta do better. So what are we gonna do? We're gonna get some. Opportunities explore, take self safe risks through hands-on activities.

Now, I know some schools do a wonderful job with this and you think that, oh, we are helping kids get ready for college. We're helping kids get ready to, um, be career competent in the new world. No. What we're helping kids do with those types of activities is develop their brain, develop resilience. Find ways of amusing and interesting themselves and.

Event, you know, giving them skills to not be depressed and isolated. It is so critical when I think back to one of my favorite things, even with the tiniest of kids, sometimes if I needed to change the energy, every kid had a clipboard. I would say, grab your clipboard, grab a pencil. We'd go in on a Wonder Walk.

Do you know what a Wonder Walk was? We would just walk around campus. We were lucky. We were near some fields. There was always something to see in fields, but I would say just. You are responsible for drawing. These were kids who weren't even, you know, couldn't even write yet. Draw something that you're interested in and it's called a Wonder Walk.

'cause this was the sentence frame I notice and I wonder, I notice and I wonder. And so for me, I would do the Wonder Walk with them. And one time I remember looking and I saw, um, a hawk that I knew always. I always knew 'cause I was like, oh gosh, one day at pickup duty, those kids are gonna see that hawk swoop down and eat a small bird.

And what am I gonna say about it? Um, there was a big tree kind of near the parking lot that always had a hawk in it and a nest in. So mine was like, I noticed the hawk and I wonder why he chose that tree. Right. So anything a kid would say, I noticed there's dandelion, they draw the, I wonder why it's yellow.

I notice and I wonder, that's just a wonder walk. That's the smallest, easiest way. But here are some other things, right? So obviously, um, we want to give kids also this kind of, when we talk risk taking, um, you know, when we back in the day. If maybe if you're not old enough, your parents will tell you what they did when they were kids.

They would go find a stick, they would go find a tire. They would probably do something that we would consider dangerous with it now. Um, but that was kind of learning those healthy risks. So how could you. Apart from just not getting kids engaged in technology, finding things that don't involve technology, how can you get them to take some of these kind of safer risks?

Well, um, in the very lower grades, I would say obstacle courses like a gym course, climbing elements, balancing beans, all those things that. Or in the playground and probably now have, you know, that foam nuggets under them. 'cause ooh, they'll hurt themselves with tampon, you know, get 'em out there. Encourage students to create their own course with, um, materials.

When you take out the pe cart with the cones and the hula hoops and the ropes. Let 'em build something here. Go make a, um, let go make. Um, a course, what do you call that? An obstacle course. Sorry, I lost the word. Okay, so that's for the younger kids. Outside for the younger cell. Kids inside, yeah. Lots of stem challenges.

Just give them, you know, make a space, give 'em cardboard, tape straws, popsicle sticks. Build a structure test. Its durability. You drop in weights on it. How many, um, I remember we used to do an activity with. Mystery science. Um, you know, Doug, he's so great. And then you, they would build something with paper and, um.

And how many pennies could it support? And so they, you know, it was a great, when people say, oh no, we failed, and no, no, no. That was the whole point. You had to take that bill, that structure to the point of failure and what did you learn, right? So that kind of process, encouraging failure as part of the learning process, right?

Oh my gosh. Mud and water play in science. Let them mix together stuff. Let 'em get a little dirty. Teach 'em about ecosystems. Teach erosion by letting them pour water on, you know, small hills and observe changes. Okay. And then get in a little bit. Um. Not being so scary with the recess games we used to play, um, we used to play noodle tag.

I would let 'em run around with the noodles from, um, from the Dollar store. I would cut them in half and they would tag each other and you had to drop it if you got tagged and sit on the floor and the next person ran around, had to pick it up like it was chaos. But it was, it was supervised, it had rules, but there was lots of kind of safer physical engagement.

So you could go Google some of those PE games. Um, zombie tag, capture the flag, um, steal the bacon, we. I used to play with the aboard racer. Wow, that's aging me. Okay. And then wherever, of course, dramatic play, improvised props, let students build forts, you know, create costumes. Um, even on a day, we knew we weren't gonna have, the power was gonna be turned off at school.

We knew that in a advance. I let the kids bloom. Blankets and flashlights. We built forts, we read in them. We had a blast. Okay? So I think it's pretty easy with the littles, right? Get them engaged. Get 'em engaged, get 'em off the technology I. Middle school, try and get more complex challenges that involve teamwork and strategic thinking, so some kind of survival scenario.

Right. Um, problem solving, build shelters. Navigate using maps. I remember we did, um, when I was in school, we had a big common, it's very British, a common, it's a piece of common land, basically a big piece of, um, green grass somewhere. And we were across the street to Mitch Common. And uh, obviously it was really big in a lot of trees, so that was kind of risky in terms.

But I do remember all the PE teacher came, came, we had to do orienteering. Oh, we, my word, do you know what that was? We had a partner and you had a compass. Like a little campus and a map and we had to find things and find our way back and it, we did have a blast. You could easily do that. You could have like some kind of treasure hunt on campus, but involving only, um.

You know, a compass and a map, something like that. You could have, of course, you know, the, uh, physics experiments, a lot of them, I know you do. Building roller coasters, egg drops, creating parachutes, you know, for the egg drops, creating catapults. All, all those things, um, are really kind of. Getting involved hands-on kind of understanding risk, right?

How about debate and persuasion? Having them take on risks with each other, discussing, why don't you assign a controversial topic? We're so afraid of that, aren't we? And create, you know, devil's advocate rounds where they have to, you know, against argue against their own opinion. I think there's a lot of, uh, understanding that every.

Body has different opinions, is probably something, um, we should be teaching. And then again, you know, some kind of PE challenges with, with middle school and certainly with high school. You, by the time you get to high school, they're doing hurdles, literal hurdles and other things, and climbing the rope. Um, but letting, encourage risk assessment by letting students decide their own difficulty level.

Sometimes, sometimes kids are willing to take on more than you think. Okay. And what about escape room puzzles? I know that a lot of them are online, but you can go online and buy some that you've set up physically in the classroom. Um, those are so good for everything, right? Um, logic movement, team playing, risk taking, um, deciphering things really cool, really cool.

So anything that where you can encourage trial and error with kids without penalties. Okay. What about high school? So now these risks might be more about decision making, you know, innovation. Why don't you try some kind of Shark tank style challenge, have students develop, um, a product and pitch it. You know, outdoor learning's gonna get a bit easier.

Certainly there's gonna be opportunities for kids to have hiking clubs or rock climbing or those types of things. Okay? Um, but you could make a, you know, a little assault course on campus. So, and of course, um, you know, passion projects requiring kids to take ownership of their own ideas, deadlines, problem solving, resource gathering.

Of course they're going to use a lot of technology for that, but it's this kind of risk piece, like, am I gonna invest all this time? Now for us, when we did a passion product project, um. One of my peers did it in eighth grade. It needed to have, you know, a com obviously a community component. And there was a lot of risk taking in that reaching out to organizations, can we come and present something to you?

Can we come and work with your seniors with the all different things? So getting kids a little bit out of their comfort zone. So I wanna, um, I wanna let you know that when I'm talking about risky play, I'm not talking about things that aren't safe, right? I'm thinking of myself back in, um. In tk how many times a day, like, watch out, watch out.

They were building these massive structures with blocks and then knocking them over, which was fun. Unless somebody was, you know, still napping next to that massive, you know, think, um, you know, eight inch square Jenga pieces, you don't want those falling on on a kid, right? I am not talking about that kind of risk.

I, it doesn't mean unsafe play. It means challenging students within appropriate limits. Right. When students experience controlled risk, they build confidence, problem solving skills, and emotional resilience. Okay. And then as teachers, we should model risk taking, right? By encouraging trial and error, by allowing mistakes, we do something wrong.

It's okay. Hey, oh, messed up. Okay, let's try it again. The world didn't end any times when I was teaching something new. Um, okay. So that's what I really wanna say. I really wanna say, think about the research. We know it is a huge problem, like how are you gonna get kids off the, you know, for yourself. Okay. I have done episodes on watching your mental diet.

Right on. How do you keep the phone out of your bedroom? How do you limit your use? How do you set boundaries for yourself that you're like, oh, I'm gonna scroll on social media for five minutes to relax and it's been an hour, and you are absolutely the opposite of relaxed. Okay. I've done episodes on that, and those are for adults.

We have problems ourselves with setting limits, right? How can we model that for kids? And if we have. Children in our home. Be mindful of the rules we have around our own, our own technology. No phones at the table ever. Right. Does your kids see you taking all kinds of selfies? What's that doing? Um, just, I was always very, when I had a child, especially just.

Who was act I was very careful how I ever talked about my own body image. Um, maybe I wasn't thrilled with my, um, body image at times that I never shared there. I never actively say, oh, I'm trying to lose weight or whatever. Just, just be mindful of the messages we're sending our kids, but please, um, number one, advocate for your school to be fun free, absolutely advocate.

Um, number two, do what you can inside your own classroom. Okay, I've just listed some of those things. Go Google some more. There's probably people out there with, with more ideas than me. I have a lot of ideas for elementary, that was my life. Elementary, you know, middle and high school. As you list, as you just listened to my little story, uh, I'm a little bit.

Right now a little bit more out of my league. I am determined to get into high school more and um, figure this out. And I was just, like I said, I was buzzing after that first day I came home and I was like, oh, why you people are afraid for the future, right? These kids are bright and they were interested and interesting and I enjoyed talking to them.

And they seemed, you know, oh, well there's no lesson planned call. Let's, what can we do? You know, they figured it out. Just getting up and walking out of the room and declaring it was a waste of time and I was a waste of time. And, um, using their phone if it wasn't to do whatever the heck they were doing, I don't know.

One girl was using it as a mirror and applied a nice face. I think maybe she was following some makeup tutorial. I don't know. So just in your classroom. In your grade level, try and get more of these, um, risk-based things going. And please, if you are a parent, and even if you're not, make sure you have watched the social network.

Um, I found it very, um, enlightening. I mean, I didn't know some of this stuff, but to hear it from the people who actually created it, um. Is so powerful and really just any time that you pick up a device, um, or you're online, just remember it isn't attention economy. People make money off your attention, your time, your energy is limited.

It's, it's a finite resource and it is getting taken from you. As a business enterprise. So just be aware of that. Okay. I would like to end, you know, I like to be empowering and not just doom and gloom, so I am gonna share something. I'm sure she wouldn't care. She'd be actually pretty power proud. Um, my daughter did have, um, uh, as I said, a constellation of, um, mental health challenges, OCD, um, anxiety.

She. Liz got her on a 5 0 4 plan. Let me tell you about the success of 5 0 4 plans that kept her supported and in school and learning academics always came easy to her. That was never the hard part. She ended up going to college, uh, lived. I. She was the one I was afraid. Will we ever cut this umbilical cord?

Like I, I always kind of hovered and I was very close to her. She moved away to college after college. She moved across the country. She went and she worked in childhood mental health in some really tough schools. Um, she. Ended up, um, getting her master's. She supported herself to get her master's degree in, um, in psychology and social work.

Part of her, um, path to that again, was working in schools in childhood mental health and also providing counseling to unhoused schizophrenic adults. She worked in newborn and new parent. Um. Demographics, um, of coaching and counseling them for mothers who were, you know, at risk mothers. She has done wonderful things.

She is now a full-time social worker and, um, and works full-time in therapy. Um, giving amazing care to, um, young adults, um, with various struggles. I could not be more proud of her. So she took what was a challenge and turned it into her. Superpower and, um, that's just, and I'm choking up. It is absolutely a, a success story for 5 0 4 plans and supporting kiddos who need resources in different ways, and I see more and more and more of them in classrooms.

The last few years I taught, I saw more anxious students than I have ever seen. Um, I know, you know. They say you spot it when you got it right. I know what it looks like and um, I know that technology has that part in that, but don't give up hope, especially if your child has anxiety. OCD, um, has, seems to be withdrawn and other things.

There are absolutely, um, don't write off any kid, is what I'm telling you. Um, just be smart, be smart and be a parent. Um, set limits for them, set boundaries for them. And please, let's advocate for phone free schools. That I think would be a huge dent. There are whole countries, you know, Greece, um, gosh, Brazil, I think there are whole countries who it is nationally mandated, phone free schools.

Um, I'm not sure we'll ever get there. Start within your sphere of influence and your school, you know, go to the school board, go to the administrators, make a case for it. All right? That's it. Um, thanks for listening. If you hung in this long next week, something more fun and upbeat, I promise, and until then, listen, create your own path.

Spring your own sunshine. Thank you every day for all the things you do for students. You deserve to have a full enriching life. Um, I'm not sure when you're gonna listen to this, but the time of this being published in April, um, lots of people have asked me. I am going to open a cohort of my Balance Your Teacher Life program this summer.

Um, I didn't run it last summer. Um, it is a six week program, but you can do it at your own pace. But there are six. Group counseling. Um, counseling? No, not at all. Absolutely not. I'm not a counselor. Group coaching calls that support teachers who want it over the summer, that's the case for taking it in summer with the coaching.

You can take it anytime. Now. I've opened it back up. Anybody? Anytime. Self-study. Lifetime access to the resources. Don't need to be in my membership. To get it, go check it out@umgraysteven.com slash. Balance, um, you deserve all the things. Okay, until next time.