About this Conversation
How does the culture of a school transform when the teachers, students, and staff are no longer on their phones? How does communication improve? How does the community come together? In this TEDMED Conversation, our host, Kelly Thomas, PhD, sits down with Bill Knauer, Head of The Harvey School, to find out what’s happening on campus since they’ve transitioned to a phone free environment. So far, it’s been transformational.
About Bill Knauer
See moreBill Knauer is an educator focused on how school culture shapes attention, presence, and human connection. As head of The Harvey School, he has led a community-wide effort to rethink the role of technology in students’ daily lives—asking not just how devices are used, but when they should be put away.
Knauer’s work centers on a simple but increasingly urgent question: what happens to learning, relationships, and self-awareness when young people are given space to look up from their screens? At Harvey, this question has translated into clear norms around phone use, intentional structures that support focus, and a broader conversation about autonomy, trust, and developmental readiness.
In this TEDMED Conversation, Knauer reflects on what schools can model for a culture struggling with distraction—and why helping students reclaim their attention may be as foundational as any academic skill.
