06/22/2026
Sometimes, the most powerful classroom upgrade is removing the screen.
A Minneapolis AP Literature teacher, Maureen Mulvaney, decided to try something many students had almost never experienced: a classroom without phones, laptops, digital PDFs, or constant notifications.
Instead, her students went back to physical books, pencil, paper, silent reading, and handwritten essays.
At first, many students worried they would fall behind. Some struggled to write even a single paragraph by hand. But within just five months, the results were striking.
In September, only 46% of her students said they felt confident in their reading skills. By February, that number had climbed to 95%.
Students who once found handwriting difficult were producing six- to seven-page essays. Nearly 80% said they could think more clearly and organize ideas better on paper than on a screen.
The change was not just academic. Students also reported fewer distractions, stronger classroom conversations, and even reduced screen use at home.
In a world where education is rapidly becoming more digital, this experiment raises a fascinating question: are screens always helping students learn — or are they quietly stealing the focus that deep learning requires?
Source: Luis Prada, Vice Magazine, 2026; based on Maureen Mulvaney’s classroom experiment in Minneapolis.
