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With America's children back in the classroom, parents, teachers and policymakers are engaged in an urgent debate over technology in our schools.
Should cell phones be banned? How much screen time is too much? Have laptops, tablets and educational apps become distractions rather than learning tools?
These are important questions. But we are overlooking a more fundamental problem: We are trying to eliminate distractions without teaching children how to pay attention.
Taking away a phone may remove one distraction. Closing a laptop may remove another. But neither teaches a child how to listen, process information, determine what matters and retain what is being taught.
Imagine taking every cell phone out of every classroom tomorrow. Would students suddenly become better listeners? Would comprehension improve? Would children automatically know how to focus on a teacher and retain important information? Of course not.
Listening is a skill, and skills have to be taught. We would never expect children to become proficient readers without teaching them to read.
Schools devote years to reading, writing, mathematics and verbal communication. Yet we spend remarkably little time explicitly teaching children how to listen.
Instead, we say: "Pay attention." "Listen to me." "Focus." But telling a child to listen is not the same as teaching a child how to listen. Effective listening requires children to slow down, follow information, distinguish what matters, connect ideas, ask questions and make meaning from what they hear. These abilities affect virtually everything that happens in a classroom.
That skill has become even more important in a digital environment where notifications, videos, games and social media constantly compete for children's attention.
Schools should establish sensible boundaries around smartphones and examine whether excessive screen use interferes with learning. But banning phones without teaching listening is like removing junk food from a child's diet without teaching nutrition. We have removed one source of the problem without developing the skill needed for long-term success.
Through my work with schools using The Listening Path®, I have seen what happens when listening becomes something students consciously practice rather than something adults repeatedly demand.
The benefits extend beyond academics. Children who learn to listen are better equipped to understand other people, consider different perspectives and solve problems rather than simply react.
We cannot confuse removing distractions with creating attention.
Reading is taught. Writing is taught. Speaking is taught.
Listening should be taught, too.
We can take every phone out of every classroom in America. But unless we teach children what to do with their attention once we have it, we will have solved only half the problem.
Christine Miles is the founder of The Listening Path and author of the award-winning book "What Is It Costing You Not to Listen?" She works with schools and organizations to teach listening as a foundational skill for learning, communication and leadership.