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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Lifestyle
Tik Root in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with photographs by Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet

FOUND: What happens when a school bans smartphones a complete transformation - What They Never Told You

Students prep for lunchtime at Buxton boarding school, which banned smartphones on campus.
Students prep for lunchtime at Buxton boarding school, which banned smartphones on campus. Photograph: Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet/The Guardian

When the weather is nice, the Buxton boarding school moves lunch outside. Students, faculty and guests grab their food from the kitchen, and eat together under a white tent that overlooks western Massachusetts’ Berkshire mountains.

As the close of the school year neared last June, talk turned to final assignments (the English class was finishing Moby-Dick) and end-of-year fun (there was a trip planned to a local lake). It was, in most ways, a typical teenage afternoon – except that no one was on their phones.

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