Indiana's law, which passed with bipartisan support, forbids students from using wireless communication devices during instructional time. There are exceptions for educational purposes, emergencies and students who need their phones for medical or disability reasons. It's up to schools to come up with their own discipline procedures for violations.
...
Phones aren't only a distraction from academics; educators and students say they've also driven interpersonal conflicts and contributed to poor mental health.
...
Students typically use their phones to listen to music, but that's no longer allowed during instructional time in Indiana. Grace says music helped her stay focused during quiet work time at school. Without it, she says, she's struggling to concentrate.
Entire generations of school kids went without music players in the classrooms. Somehow, she will manage.
Entire generations of kids were also corporally punished by teachers, but that is no longer considered good practice.
Let's not equate beatings and other child abuse to not having music during school hours.
Let take this as an example that just blindly saying things "worked" in the past means we should keep doing things the same way
Fair enough, this is just hobbling kids who would be better off with something to fill in the background.
The question then becomes: are the many students who do not benefit from music as background noise hurt by the permission of it even through headphones?
You can still use an MP3 player if you absolutely must have music, although I've never heard of a teacher allowing students to listen to music during class in the 40+ years that that's been a possibility.