Dear Students,
Greetings and happy mid-August! I hope you all have had summers filled with adventures and family time. The pace around campus is starting to pick up, and we are excited about your return. Yesterday, you should have received an email from Head of School Amy Smucker and a link to our updated Student Handbook. Of course, your attention was drawn to our new pilot program that will limit phone use during the school day. Many of you are coming from schools that had a phone ban in place, while for our returning students, this will be a new experience at Proctor.
As you anticipate your arrival, I want you to think about your favorite Proctor memories, or if you are new, what drew you to Proctor. Waking up to a desert sunrise on Mountain Classroom, jumping through the ice during Polar Swim, scoring a goal under the lights and sprinting to the student section, laughing with friends at the swinging bridge, playing hacky sack on the turf, packing the Ted, or watching dolphins play off the back of the boat on Ocean Classroom. Each of these favorite memories have something in common: phones are not present.
Each year, when we ask our seniors what they will remember most about Proctor it is these moments. And yet over the past decade, these moments have been harder to come by because phones have infiltrated our lives. In order to amplify the fullness of the Proctor experience, we have decided to pilot a new phone policy, powered by a software called Doorman. Each morning you will tap your phone on a tile outside your first block classroom, and Doorman will disable certain apps until dinner. You will still be able to access the emergency system, call home, and access your schedule/assignments on Canvas, but, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube will be quiet for the day. As this is a pilot program, we will welcome your input and feedback after we have had the opportunity to be a phone-free campus for a few weeks.
You might be wondering why we are doing this instead of just asking you to put your phones away on your own. Researcher Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, makes an important point: simply putting phones away doesn’t work. He suggests that boredom without connection is just as bad as scrolling. What you actually need isn’t just less screen time, it is more time together, connecting. Phones cannot replace real face-to-face conversation. So, our decision is not just about disabling phones; it is about making sure that time gets filled with something better: real relationships and connection. Opportunities for that deep connection abound on Proctor’s campus, and when we are looking down at our phones, we miss them.
For returning students, we know this will be challenging at first, just like the first few days of Orientation are when you do not have your phones. But we also know that the freedom you will experience after adjusting to this new reality will unlock the best of Proctor for you and your friends. We cannot wait to see you back on campus and to have an amazing year together without the distraction of our phones pulling us away from the best parts of Proctor.
Sincerely,
Annie MacKenzie
Assistant Head of School
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