“Oh my god!” “Are they serious?” “That is just not going to last.”

Phones will be no more at FHC. Turned off. Put away. On your desk or in a wall slot. No exceptions. All teachers.

Upon hearing this, I was just appalled as every other phone-obsessed teenager. But, my opinion was changed almost immediately.

“How can they actually do that? Some kids are responsible,” I thought.

Now we are on day three. I have played by the rules, turned the phone off, and put it away, and now I can honestly say, “I get it.”

The intention engagement. Yes, you can be almost totally engaged if every seven minutes you look down and reply to a text. But here’s the thing: in the 30 seconds it takes for you read the text and reply to it, you have completely disengaged yourself and re-engaged yourself in something else.

Yes, you can make the argument that these are sprite 17-year-olds who can bounce back and multitask better than adults. But every 30-second surreptitious text adds up to a bigger picture of missed educational moments.

To be honest, I don’t miss my phone. I don’t miss the seditious tweets that pop up making me just a little bit more angry at politics, the pointless snapchats of random bricks throughout the school, and random filled-in eyebrows on foreheads.

I’m learning more, I’m three weeks ahead in my online class, and I don’t have to worry about my phone dying in the middle of the day.

Yes, kids are annoyed, but I do see and feel the benefits, and they are grand.