I think my students are being entirely rational when they “distract” themselves in my class with their phones. They understand the world they are being prepared to enter much better than I do. In that world, I’m the distraction, not their phones or their social-media profiles or their networking. Yet for what I’m supposed to be doing — educating and cultivating young hearts and minds — the consequences are pretty dark.

Ron Srigley: I asked my students to turn in their cell phones and write about living without them.