I remember during my time in high school, my peers were dumb as hell also. We didn't have smart phones, but there were still an infinite amount of distractions. I remember sitting in class and just staring at my desk for half an hour and absolutely NOTHING was registered in my head from the teacher. The teachers are also mindless NPCs who have no passion and repeat what they are told. How can students get engaged with something like that? It wouldnt surprise me if this art teacher is boring and shows absolutely no passion when teaching. You can't just tell students the answer to the test you have to interest them in in the subject, which teachers FAIL miserably at doing and instead just blame their students.

Also, I'm not saying smart phones aren't a problem. They are, especially their addictive nature. Schools should really outright ban them during class time. How did we survive without cell phones decades ago? Of all the things schools ban, I'm surprised none of them ban smartphones.