Years ago, before a smartphone was clutched in every human hand, I posed a question to our 300-plus high school students. After years of working in a high school as a teacher and counselor, I noticed some changes in our culture that were causing me pause. I figured it would be helpful to hear directly from the students. “Take out a piece of paper and a pen,” I said. “As a guess, how many minutes of total silence do you get in a day? And to be clear, this is not counting when you sleep.” I saw a few smiles and heard a few laughs. Many were trying to calculate a realistic number. iTunes had been out for a while, and the release of the iPod was in 2001. By this point, the majority of kids owned one. CD players were in their cars and headphones were draped around their …