Phones = Leverage to fix school
"Less homework! Shorter school days! Better food!" Inundated with these revolutionary ideas from students, schools closed their suggestion boxes a long time ago. But with phones in your hand and between 2.4 and 5 GHz of bandwidth at your fingertips, you have leverage. Instead of constantly fighting teachers over phone use (pain, angst, sadness), ask them, what do you want in exchange?
Not sure what's wrong with class, or don't think there's anything you could change? Check out this page for strict teachers and this page for nice ones, and this page for an example of changing curriculum and bad policy.
Coordinate with the homies 
you know how we all hate math class? what if we, like, asked Mr. Karp to just... stop doing the whole lecture thing.
We can tell him we won't use our phones while he's talking if he makes that change.
Now all you gotta do is...
Bring it up without starting beef 
Subject: Idea to reduce phone use in class
Dear [teacher's name],
I've been anxious about sending this email - I'm afraid to come off as rude or insensitive - so thank you for taking the time to read.
I've been talking to the other students about our phones: when we use our phones in class, it's usually because we're feeling [tired/stressed], but we know it can come off as disrespectful.
When we don't have a lot of choice in how class goes, using our phones is the only thing we *can* control. But that's toxic, and we want to stop. If we had more choice in class and more opportunities to be engaged, we would commit to using our phones less.
Is there a way we could work together to make class better?
For example, if the class [your problem with it, like "was less lecture-based" or "had more breaks"], it would help us be more engaged. We're open to your feedback on what we can change, too!
With hope and gratitude,
[Your Name]
Avoid using "YOU" language - don't accuse the teacher of doing anything wrong, say that "the class" isn't engaging, not that they are boring.
Don't wanna involve the whole class? You can totally do this yourself, too! Replace "we" with "I" and you're set.
Use the same trick to change your whole school 
School admin are promoted based on how well they can curb phone use. Right now, they're pooping their pants. Everybody's using their phones, everybody's angry about the new policy that BANS phones, people have started bringing a SECOND phone to school in case the first one gets locked up...
Choose the worst part of school 
And be like, nah. We'll stop using our phones if you get rid of that.
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