I almost died the other day. But not from what you might think. I was sitting in one of my classes, and I had just finished our assignment for the week. A simple project that, at most, should take thirty minutes to complete. Our teacher is kind enough to give us a full week on most assignments we get in her class. But then, I heard her speak. Out of our 20-something student class, 8 were failing.

I felt my heart stop. Failing? How in the world could you fail such an easy class? Then I looked up from my book and saw it: phones. Everywhere. Only a few didn’t have a phone in their hands.

I’ve noticed since then that every single day, the kids who are failing that teacher’s class are never doing their work. Never. Either they’re watching anime on their computer, or they’re playing on their phone, but they’re never actually getting work done.

I won’t go into detail, but I have a condition where I always have to be busy. I can’t even play for half an hour on my Xbox without having my computer beside me, getting work for other classes done that isn’t even due for another month. I remember thinking that I was having a panic attack in class when the teacher said that students were failing. To me, I had no idea how you couldn’t do the work, much less spend 45 minutes playing on your phone.

I always try to think of other people’s situations, but I know with most of these kids, this isn’t the case. They’re just plain lazy. They’re addicted to the glowing blue rectangle in front of them.

This is also the case with pretty much all of my classes. English class? Yeah, there are always those two that never put their phones away. Algebra class? If the teacher isn’t looking, time to look at it. History? Almost everyone has it out at least once. Even my AP biology class isn’t doing their work sometimes.

Personally, I don’t understand how something could take away so much from the learning experience. I personally am going for a Highest Honors Diploma, and seeing stuff like this not only hurts my soul but kills what few brain cells actually work.