“… I would encourage our students as well as our parents to be very mindful that we educate and form the whole person. So we are very interested in the academic progress of our students, but we are also very interested (and concerned these days) about their emotional health, mental health, and well-being. While we don’t have to lower our standards, I think it is very, very important to make sure that we remind our students that all the Lord asks is their very best…”
Bishop Michael Burbidge, Bishop of the Diocese of Arlington, Va. on his “Walk Humbly” podcast.
I have mentioned before that I have become a “fan” (admirer) of Bishop Michael Burbidge, bishop of the Diocese of Arlington, Va. I am also a fan and faithful listener of his “Walk Humbly” podcast. As a priest and bishop, I am grateful for the example and experience that Bishop Burbidge shares, especially as I listen to his podcasts. His dedication to his episcopal ministry and the joy that he finds as shepherd to God’s people is evident as he discusses the life of the Church in Arlington and the challenges and opportunities he experiences in his “day-to-day” ministry as a bishop.
The quote above from Bishop Burbidge’s most recent podcast episode is an example of the priority he places on families and Catholic education. I would strongly encourage readers to listen to the full episode and hear the bishop and co-host discuss a new school year, the importance and identity of Catholic Schools, the gratitude we should have and express to our Catholic School teachers and catechists, the vocation of parents as the “first educators” of their children in the Faith, and much more.
In our own diocese, students are now “back to school” following the Labor Day holiday. The beginning of the school year is always an exciting time filled with new adventures for students. Our Catholic School teachers and administration guide our students, led by their parents, to encounter the person of Jesus Christ in an experience of community. The uniqueness of Catholic education is its emphasis on friendship with the Lord Jesus amid his Church. That encounter requires communication. In the digital world that children are immersed in, information arrives not in a stream but in a flood.
Guiding students to be discerning in their consumption of so much information — much of it unhealthy — requires that we foster the best in technology and its use by sifting out as much as possible, the corrosive and destructive. In Catholic Education, our mission is to be on the vanguard of communicating the gospel and truly human values. One example of the many ways we strive to fulfill this mission is professional development, coordinated by our Catholic Schools Office, on the social and emotional development of the student thus helping our educators to better understand how to teach our students of today. Our Catholic School administrators and teachers are very aware of the impact of cell phones and social media on the development of young people in our culture today.
This brings me to another topic discussed by Bishop Burbidge and his co-host: “Cell phone-free schools.” In recent years I have heard references to schools restricting access to cell phones, but I had not yet heard the topic discussed so directly, nor did I realize that many schools and school districts are taking steps in this direction. Apparently, all the Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Arlington are “phone free” at some level and the Commonwealth (State) of Virginia is considering the possibility that all schools will be “phone free.” A few days after listening to the podcast, we were very fortunate to be able to welcome Dr. Peter Kilpatrick, the president of The Catholic University of America, to our diocese, to meet and speak with the presidents and principals of our Catholic high schools. I am very grateful to our Superintendent of Schools, Mary Baier, to Mrs. Julie McGurn, parishioner of St. Vincent’s, Madison, and board member of Catholic University, and Father Paul Manning and the team at our St. Paul’s Inside the Walls Evangelization Center, for working together to coordinate Dr. Kilpatrick’s visit.
Dr. Kilpatrick gave an inspiring and informative address on the topic of Partnerships between Catholic Secondary and Higher Education, in which he spoke about “Forming Souls and Building Culture.” After Dr. Kilpatrick’s remarks, there was an opportunity for questions, answers, and discussion. I found it interesting (and wonderful) that Dr. Kilpatrick and many of the educators present spoke from their experience as parents, as well as professionals. I guess I should not have been surprised that very quickly the topic of the conversation turned to the emotional and mental health struggles that teenagers and students are facing and how they are so “attached” to their smartphones and social media. It is becoming clearer that smartphones and social media are negatively impacting the well-being and personal development/formation of many teenagers and young people. I was happy to hear that some of our schools and faculties have already taken steps to limit students’ access to their cell phones during class time and are considering further restrictions during the school day.
After listening to the podcast and the discussion with Dr. Kilpatrick, I realized that I had some “catching up” and research to do. By that point, I was not surprised that, when I googled “Cell phone-free schools,” there was a wealth of information at my fingertips. Two of the “top three” options offered on Google pointed to the fact that the debate over “phone-free schools” appears to be very robust. The first article offered was, “Momentum Grows for cell phone bans in schools” (The Hill) and the third option was, “American parents want their kids to have phones in schools” (The Economist). As I did some reading, I soon came across an article in The Atlantic, “The Case for Cell Phone Free Schools” by Johnathan Haidt, posted on a website called, “After Babel” in June of 2023. See the link to the article below.
The article caught my attention because Mr. Haidt is the author of a recently published (March 2024) book called: The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. I have heard the book mentioned several times recently and it was mentioned in the conversation with Dr. Kilpatrick. In the online article, Mr. Haidt makes the argument that the challenges teenagers, parents, and educators are facing, caused by the addiction to smartphones (and social media) started around the year 2012. He begins his article by recounting two experiences from 2019:
“In May 2019, I was invited to give a lecture at my old high school in Scarsdale, New York. Before the talk, I met with the principal and his top administrators. I heard that the school, like most high schools in America, was struggling with a large and recent increase in mental illness among its students. The primary diagnoses were depression and anxiety disorders, including increasing rates of self-harm; girls were particularly vulnerable. I was told that the mental health problems were already baked in when students arrived for ninth grade. Coming out of middle school, many students were already anxious and depressed. Many were also already addicted to their phones.
Ten months later, I was invited to give a talk at Scarsdale Middle School. There, too, I met with the principal and her top administrators, and I heard the same thing: Mental health problems had recently gotten much worse. Even when students arrived for sixth grade, coming out of elementary school, many of them were already anxious and depressed. And many, already, were addicted to their phones.”
After Babel / Phone Free Schools
If that was the case in 2019, before the pandemic, before the lockdown and “virtual classes,” then where are we, our young people, parents, and educators, as we enter a new school year in 2024? I encourage readers to read the full article by Mr. Haidt and share it with others. He makes a very convincing case. He is also a teacher (of undergraduates at NYU) and a father of two teenage girls. I am planning to read his book, continue researching this topic, and continue the conversation with Mary Baier, our Catholic School principals, presidents, and administrators.
To conclude on a more positive note, the meeting with our high school principals, presidents, and administrators this past week was one more reminder to me that we can (still) be very hopeful about and grateful for the education and formation that our young people are receiving in our Catholic high schools and elementary schools. We can also be hopeful and grateful for our Parish Faith Formation programs, thanks to so many dedicated pastors, catechetical leaders, and catechists. Let us continue to pray for all parents, as the “first teachers of their children in the ways of faith,” for all students, teachers, school administrators, and staff, as we go “back to school.”
