American high school teacher here (Midwest region). We implemented a policy this year banning cellphones in instructional spaces during instructional time. Enforceable by confiscation if teachers saw or heard a phone. We have a strong set of administrators who supported teachers in any case where there was student pushback. It has been a huge success in terms of limiting distractions during instructional time. All of our students are provided Chromebooks so there really isn’t much of an instructional reason to have phones anyway. It has also contributed to a drop in student-on-student behavior problems.
I do feel for the girl in this article for whom it was used as a coping mechanism for bullying. No policy comes with zero downsides. However, it sounds like she was allowed exceptions in certain cases, which is exactly what should happen.
I do feel for the girl in this article for whom it was used as a coping mechanism for bullying. No policy comes with zero downsides
Right, it’s kind of a trolley problem. Is it better to do lesser harm through action (banning cell phones, meaning a few students like this can’t reach their family during school hours), or greater harm through inaction (loose cell phone policy, harming the learning process for everyone, inviting violence against teachers who are competing against addictive algorithms for their students’ attention)?
Cell phones barely existed when I was in school and were certainly out of reach for students. Bullying still happened (personal experience, yay) and staff would shut that shit down when they saw it or it was reported.
I also went to school with no cell phones, and was bullied mercilessly. Staff didn’t care then, and I doubt they care now. I’m glad you went to a school where the adults cared.
When was this? I was in high school during the early 00’s. There were no cell phones, not because of policy, but because they just weren’t commonplace.
It’s not lesser harm since no one else is gonna pay for the mental health bills nor could revert the damage done from the bullying. And when someone snaps from bullying you are gonna see blood for sure. (and little kids/teens snaps from very little things, talking from experiences.) have you ever seen clip where a chubby kid slams a bully teasing him upside down? the bully got slammed could be paralyzed for life, or worse dead, the chubby kid that got bullied could bear that trauma for life, it happens when bully think no one is watching and it’s “life as usual”, picking on this bigger kid to have some power fantasy or bragging to his mates. If the chubby kid had the tool, pull out a phone and push a button and say, “I’m live streaming this and will report to teacher and my parents, watch your action and leave me alone.” Wouldn’t the violence resolved without potential life changing events?
I meant harm in that it affects “one or a few students” rather than affecting “practically all students.”
school is place to learn 2 things:
- proper social interaction and becoming a responsible adult.
- essential knowledge and skills before you branch out and find your thing to earn your own meals.
And IMO, the first point is way more important than the second. Let’s see the implication by breaking down the proposed ban.
From the anti-bullying side:
- deterrent tool is taken away
- bully now have a “safe” grey area to do their thing and become he says/she says.
- teachers or admins could not keep eyes on everyone, and some of them don’t care if there are no bodily harms happened.
- you know how much teens will listen to what adults said, even with laid out consequences.
From the learning, focus during instructional time:
- I grew up without any gadgets(45yo) so no gameboy until I was at high school. Everyone still found ways to distract themselves from boring classes.
- for schools without student chromebook/laptop/tablet, you lose a big chunk of diversity in “asking questions” or “find alternatives”. aka, I feel teacher said something off, how do I find something to support my talking point or argument? Fact checking, math checking, etc.
- The guys that are not interested in your material and have nothing to distract themselves with will just stare at something they interested in or day dreaming stuff. It will not help average score or engagement.
For engagement, from my old self and what my friends here from different background/countries/age bracket discuss their past, the one common thing is fun knowledgeable teacher and how enjoyable their class was last life time long. It shapes their understanding, how they engage other people or topics involving different areas. kids and teens are like herds of fun chasing animal, if even half of your class is having fun and discuss the materials and exchanging questions etc, the rest will follow cause they don’t want to be “left out”.
In short, if a teen can learn how to calculate DPS and build sets for their favorite game but fails the math about probability and expected value, the teacher is doing something wrong.
Again, your old self, and mine for that matter, didn’t have the constant, always-on global communications device in your pocket with precision-engineered addiction algorithms frying your dopamine receptors. Yes, I’m going to boomer out here and say that ShitTok and their ilk are a scourge on youth and on society as a whole. The predictive promotional algorithm, flashy multimedia content, and, let’s be honest, what amounts of soft porn in many cases, absolutely lays waste to attention spans and studious pursuits — doubly so in young, fertile minds. No teacher, no matter how good they are, can compete with that.
I can’t link to it right now for obvious reasons, but there was a post a little while ago on /r/teachers from an experienced educator lamenting on how the behaviour of students has degraded dramatically in just the last few years. They not only lack respect for their teachers, they’re actively disrespectful and sometimes flat-out violent towards educators and staff (particularly when their dopamine pumps are confiscated), and willfully destructive. Students lash out, destroy expensive equipment for fun, and are just downright ineducable.
I may be mixing my sources right now, I believe this was from a corresponding YouTube video that was linked in the post or comments, but the concluding notion I was left with is that there’s an epidemic of emotional dysregulation among youth, induced by combination of poor parenting, lack of effective authority, and — the big one — smartphone addiction. The sentiment that lingers in my head: kids today are no longer interested in learning, they’re only interested in how they can be entertained in the next five minutes.
I think there could be an agreeable balance where students are expected to leave their devices out of sight and on mute during instructional and recess periods. This could be a teaching tool for them to learn about the common courtesy of not being disruptive in settings where attentiveness and other activities are expected and appropriate. Or, really, they could just leave their phones in their lockers. We survived just fine without them at all.
That is what the adults needs to do, push for regulation(ie. on very basic level, no NSFW content gets to feed into minor’s feed), setup app screen time with parent control or even do something similar that works with schools boards. If district, school or PTA needs that implemented, hire some professionals and do the jobs properly so no algorithms feed apps during school hours.
Let me just say this, banning or taking the device away does not solve the issue, they still have that dopamine hit if they have a 2nd device hidden away.(thus regulation on the provider side is important.) I had classmates in high school literally buy a new weekly manga since it was confiscated by the teacher just to finish his weekly follow ups.
If people give 3yo phone/tablets to watch youtube to keep them quite and not engaging them, it’s not hard to see how they grow up to be, right?
PS. also, non-verbal people really needs their phone to communicate properly or people that are neurodivergent and would require time to compose legible sentences. I doubt any common chomps understand what they said if they use the talking board.
PS. also, non-verbal people really needs their phone to communicate properly or people that are neurodivergent and would require time to compose legible sentences. I doubt any common chomps understand what they said if they use the talking board.
This is what exceptions are for. That doesn’t invalidate the need for rules.
I’m surprised that this wasn’t something that was already implemented. When I was in highschool in the early 2000’s cellphones would be instantly taken away if they were spotted by a teacher during class.
I don’t understand parents needing constant contact with their children. As a kid I would’ve hated that, helicopter parenting x1000.
The article mentions kids being able to call their parents when being bullied. Having an emergency contact option is always useful.
Understandable, but I doubt much bullying is happening during class time, where I feel that having cellphones put away would be the most beneficial. Several times I’ve been asked to put my cellphones in pouches that set off alarms when opened during small comedy shows/concerts, I feel that might be an alright solution to in class device lock down. Then when the class is over phone can come out.
In terms of bullying I think that’s more a failure of the education system that these students don’t have someone to turn to, in the faculty, to deal with it. It sucks because I couldn’t imagine what bullying is like now in the digital age. I always felt that teachers and admins never got enough power to deal with severe bullying without blow back from parents.
At my high school most of my teachers didn’t allow cellphones in class, and would take them away for the period if they caught the student more than once.
There isn’t a lot of need for cellphones in a classroom, especially if the students have access to school laptops/computers.
Phones aren’t the problem, applications are. No one ever complained about having Nokia 3310s in their pockets.
you clearly went to a different school than I did in tne 1990s
Yeah, snake2 was addictive… and don’t forget space impact.
snake 2 was the best! When I bought my first cell phone from Radioshack and I told them it had to have snake, the sales lady was flabbergasted that I cared about having games on my phone.
You guys had phones in the 90s? All I had was a tamagochi, and it got confiscated.
Oh yeah those weren’t allowed either lol! In 1999-2002 I don’t think we had phones either but pagers were banned.
well I didn’t but the rich kids did.
Bright colorful screens that mess up serotonin are also part of the problem.
Pagers and cells were banned in my high school. If you needed to make a call you use the pay phones and the parent can call the office. Never been an issue. But at the very least keeping cell phones basic and only for calls would at least help.
There’s a lot of people here immediately jumping to the “cell phones bad!” conclusion.
Phones are a part of kids lives nowadays. Banning them in schools isn’t going to help anyone. How are children supposed to learn to use technology safely and effectively if we just take it away from them instead? I don’t want to imply that it is only a teachers job to teach kids about safe technology use, because it isn’t, but kids spend 30+ hours a week at school. It is a large portion of their lives and what they learn in the classroom often ends up reflected in their lives outside of school.
I think everyone who jumps to the conclusion to ban cell phones in schools is missing the point. All it does is encourage kids to use their technology in unsupervised spaces instead. It doesn’t teach them how to use it safely or effectively, and it doesn’t prevent them from participating in cyber bullying. All it does is push issues such as that outside of the school where kids have arguably less resources and support systems to deal with it.
We can all agree that alcohol isn’t bad by itself and that we can learn to use it safely (don’t drink too much, knowing when we had enough etc…). And yet we keep away alcohol from children. Why? Because it is a well-known fact that children may not have the capability to limit themselves; they might very well become addicted and fall into it.
Why should it be any different for mobile phones? We know it can become an addiction. And we also know that children do not have the means to limit themselves because of their young age.
Deliberately letting a kid having a phone for an indefinite amount of time is being irresponsible. What would be responsible is only allowing to use the phone for a limited time.
Schools banning phone could be one way towards that. It would be a good way too because the kid would not be suffering from any social pressure from their peers as everyone would be concerned with the ban.
I started learning to code at 9 years old and that helped me become a professional developer in my teens. Preventing access to technology is just removing opportunities from your children. Teach them responsible usage, if it was possible 30 years ago it’s possible now.
Nobody does programming on their phones
Staring down enshittified platforms instead of learning actual social interaction. 👌
E: This may come off as it’s their fault. That’s not the case of course. That’s why adults are having this conversation. The adults before them built the system that gave us these companies which create those enshittified platforms in the neverending search of profit.
They learn to customize their phones, can figure out how to build apps for them, etc. Mobile programming is, predictably, a very good skill to have right now.
Yeah, and they can learn that during a class or vocational semester for the subject, but everyone needs a solid baseline in core subjects without being constantly distracted.
Which is fine. Programming is only an example of where opportunity was found in his time, not where current/future people will find opportunity. We don’t know what the new opportunities will be. If we did, we’d have already opportunized them to death.
I’m all in to get programming classes where children learn to code on PCs. That’s a high pass for me. But AFAIK children aren’t doing programming on their phones.
In general i doubt using a phone at school is going to help them program or teach them about technology. They have plenty of time to explore phones on their own when they get home, especially now that kids don’t go much outside anymore. It’s not like a school ban would be cutting that away from them.
I mean my dad had me help him code a game on his commodore 64 at 5 but my internet usage in 1999 was still monitored. My dad made sure I understood the dangers and implications of interacting with people online and I knew exactly how to rebuff any kind of solicitation. I never gave names, exact locations etc, when using chats of course asl was a popular thing to ask and I never was more specific than USA. I have also lied about my sex when I’d participate in chats where I found identifying as a girl got me nehative attention. Even then, when my dad wasn’t around, as he trusted us after some time… I somehow got porn pop-ups all over my screen and I have to say that I wish I hadn’t seen some of the stuff on there lol! We didn’t have social media in its present form but youtube became a thing while I was in college and I made the mistake of posting some videos of myself which I’m glad I removed shortly after realizing how embarrassing and cringeworthy they were. I’m just glad the posts I made on street fighter online forums and new grounds weren’t on something like Facebook or tik tok… as an adult I went back and deleted these profiles and posts because I obviously was too immature to post. I can’t believe what kind if drivel teenage me was spewing online and I’m glad there isn’t video evidence of the idiotic things I said and believed. I personally don’t care as I stopped teaching before this social media boom but if adults can be twisted and manipulated, pushed toward extremism and critical thinking goes in the backburner, I can’t imagine what it does to the mind of a child. Smart phones are great tools if you can somehow limit their functions while in the classroom like some kind of school mode.
This is just a bad comparison, comparing a drug to electronics makes literally 0 sense.
We don’t let kids eat during class because it’s disruptive, should we ban eating in schools all together? Kids aren’t allowed to play sports in the hallways, sports can cause injuries, ban sports at school?
That’s the logic of this comparison, that is, none at all.
It’s an analogy. It’s inaccurate as all analogies are. Yet it’s useful to make the point that banning children from doing X or Y isn’t unprecedented or unacceptable.
Kids go to school for much more than what they learn in class. A fully formed human being that can function in a society requires a lot of social interaction training. That’s what school is for in-between classes. If kids are staring down their phones during that time instead of interacting with each other, that training is lost. Worse, instead of that, they get trained on a false social reality as portrayed by whatever enshittified platform they’re currently on, based on whatever behavior makes the most money today. Is this enough to visualize the damage phones in hallways cause?
I am comparing a drug to a drug that’s the whole point. Phones are drugs. For adults and children alike.
The problem is not in the phone itself. It’s in the lack of doing things that kids should normally be doing at that age. They will play with their phone instead of playing physically (less tonus), sleeping (constant tiredness), talking with their parents (learning) or other kids (socializing).
I know kids like that in my family. You can tell from the dark lines under their eyes that they spend most of their day staring at a screen. And if you ask them to play outside they just don’t know what to do, they need access to a screen even with other kids. It’s really a scary sight. And its a drug yes
Dopamine receptors outnumbering all others on their neurons.
We don’t let kids eat during class because it’s disruptive
You’re so close the understanding the problem
I understand the problem, I agree that kids shouldn’t be on their phone in class. I stand by my point though, which is that this is a bad comparison.
This is going to be my hot take of the day.
Cars are very much part of our lives and we decided that there was a minimum age to own and operate them. I could potentially get behind a system where we don’t let children below a certain age operate / own a phone.
It’s illegal to smoke with a kid in your car, but we have no problem giving a 10 year old kid unfiltered internet 24/7 as a society.
I don’t strictly disagree, but the damage misusing a car can cause is a lot more obvious and quantifiable than a phone, so it is a much harder argument to make
That said, high school students do drive and they can’t do so in the classroom, so we’re rapidly approaching an apples and oranges argument with regards to how phones should specifically look inside of school.
This is a hot take that I can get on board with. I think in order for this to happen we (as a society) will have to come to grips with the real damage device addiction can do to our lives. The harm is easy to find with second hand smoke and alcohol but we do a great job turning a blind eye to all the issues we’re causing for ourselves by being stuck on our devices.
I’ll counter your hot take. I don’t think kids should have unfiltered or unsupervised access to the internet. That’s exactly what I’m stating in my original comment. Classrooms are supervised spaces where kids can learn how to use the internet and technology as a tool. We can’t just go “you’re 8 so you can’t use technology.” That isn’t an effective way to teach children about the world. Allowing them to use technology in safe, supervised settings, and teaching them how to use it safely and effectively is more useful than straight up banning it until they pass a certain age threshold.
Growing up, I had access to a computer from the age of 2. I could use it to play games, listen to music, make greeting cards, etc. but I had daily time limits for the amount of screen time I was allowed. I also wasn’t allowed unsupervised internet usage. This was far more effective than completely banning me from using the computer until I was older, in my opinion. I was far more technically literate than the majority of my friends by the time I hit first grade, and it helped immensely throughout my school years. When you know how to use a tool safely and effectively, you can use it to complete tasks and projects far more efficiently. If we get hung up on labelling all technology as equal and bad and banning it, we’re missing the good parts of it. Nothing is inherently bad. The use is what makes it bad. If we teach proper use, we lower the chances of the bad things happening.
Phones are a part of kids lives nowadays.
It has a time and place. I think the point here is that the time and place is not in class.
I give my children unfettered access to technology. It is very much a last resort for them, only picking up a device when they have exhausted all other visible opportunity to do something more interesting. Suggesting that they do almost anything else is met with “Yeah! Let’s do that!”
If a student is reaching for their phone in class, the problem is with something about the class. Being old, cell phones came in giant bags when I was a student, but we played with our calculators, doodled, or anything else to stave off the same boredom when we had a horrible teacher who had no clue as to what they were doing. The phone is just a more modern version of the exact same quest for distraction.
I think the point is that we need to question why we are wasting our students’ time in classes which are not providing value. There is a lot of sentimental attachment to school, but ultimately there is no need for make work projects. The focus needs to be on delivering value and where that is not being delivered a rethink is necessary.
Phone use, or any such distraction, is a symptom telling us that there is a problem in value delivery. Suppressing a symptom does not cure the illness.
You don’t have to look very far to know your n of 1 isn’t representative.
And adding more distraction opportunities doesn’t help.
Distractions don’t help, but they also don’t hinder, so long as value is being delivered. What would even compel one to reach for their phone if greater value is derived by not using it?
Of course, if you have attended school before you know full well that value is not consistently delivered. A lot of teachers don’t know how to approach a class, period. Even when they do, not all students can be approached the same way. When the stars align value can be provided, but it is a highly imperfect system.
Nothing in life is perfect, and knowing that, why shove the clearly imperfect parts down students’ throats unnecessarily? They are not deriving value from it. Again, I understand the sentimental attachment, but that is not a good reason.
Distractions don’t help, but they also don’t hinder,
Lol yes they do practically by definition. A distraction provides no value pretty much by definition.
Nothing in life is perfect, so why are we adding even more distractions in class. Nothing in life is perfect, so why don’t we help the situation by removing phones from class. Improve the situation by getting good teachers, and we can add even more by not having them compete with the insanely engineered to be addictive tiktok during class time. These work together.
A distraction, by definition, must provide some amount of value. The amount is likely low, but must offer more than what it is in competition with. Certainly when a class is offering no value, the value of a distraction need not be high to be able to offer more value.
We agree that students not deriving value are a distraction to the teacher. Send them on their way to find something that is providing them value/more value than TikTok. While we have primarily focused on the wasting of student time, we have also touched on it being a waste of teacher time. As before, we don’t need make work projects.
The focus must be on value delivery. When value is not being delivered, there needs to be a rethink. Suppressing a symptom does not cure the illness and sentimental attachment is not good reason to hang on to an illness.
Lol no a distraction does not provide value, by itself. And no it does not offer more value than an actual class. That’s not what a distraction is.
Value is being delivered in class, and the distraction is distracting from that value. And removing phone helps remove that distraction. This is not one or the other, you add things that help and you take away things that hurt. It’s not a binary. You do things together.
You’re so twisted around on terms and trying to twist the result means, and then trying to put it as a binary one thing or the other. Factors work together. I’m not replying further.
In that case there should be some time dedicated to that topic.
Otherwise, they have all that technology in hand as soon as classes finish. The younger generations are all born with tablets and smartphones in their hands.
I’m really not worried about them learning how they work.
Heck, we had a PC at home and I learned how to use DOS as soon as I learned how to read just so I could play games.
I think you’re understanding these kids.
I’m not necessarily saying they need to learn how the devices work (although some kids do). I’m more saying they need to learn how to use them, as in, when it is appropriate and effective to use their phone, and what they should be using it for. Scrolling through social media in class? Obviously not a good choice when you should be focusing on your learning. Using it as a calculator? Great! We have a calculator in our pocket for just that reason. Fact checking something to make sure what you’re writing in your essay is true? Great! Always back up your writing with sources!
Phones are just mini computers. We use computers in the classroom because we understand they’re a useful tool. Showing kids how to utilize those tools is important. The younger generation (myself included, although I graduated high school 7 years ago now) see cell phones as an extension of themselves. It’s a tool I use daily to find information, view traffic in real time, keep up to date on current events, and communicate with my family and friends. I use it all the time. I’m very strongly of the opinion that technology is never inherently bad. We just need to teach and model appropriate and effective use.
I get your point and it’s very valid.
However, it’s still a big distraction. Smart phones are purposefully programmed to distract, get your attention and keep it. With all the apps that send push notifications making your phone buzz every minute, it’s hard to focus on anything else. I leave mine in “do not disturb” mode to stop getting distracted all the time, and even then I still see the god damn things pup up on screen and will change my attention from my work to my phone.
I really don’t think they have their place in the classroom just for that reason alone.
In my experience, kids who want to be distracted will find a way to do it. I’ve been in classrooms (as an adult) where phones and computers weren’t allowed. Most notably, I’ve observed a grade 7 class where with their social studies teacher, they weren’t allowed technology in the classroom, but with their math teacher, they were. There was not a different level of distraction between the two classrooms. The only difference was in the way kids chose to spend their time instead of working. In the room without technology, they would sit and stare off into space and not work, or distract their neighbour with a conversation, or doodle instead of doing their work. In the room with technology, they’d play a scratch game on their computer, or do work for a different class on Google Classroom (because that’s what they felt like working on at the moment, although they weren’t supposed to be), or doodle in Paint, or text a friend. However, through my observations of both classrooms, neither one of them had more distracted kids. The distraction was just different.
Maybe other people have different experiences in other classrooms, but my observations here have been pretty consistent across every classroom I’ve been in (and it’s been a lot of classrooms, because it’s part of my practicum to get my teaching degree). Teaching kids about respectful technology use and when it’s appropriate to use their phones as a tool in the classroom seems far more beneficial to me than just banning phones.
I assumed cell phones would be banned in classrooms. When I was in school any sight of a walkman would get it taken away!
When I was in highschool (late 10s) you were allowed to have your phone on you in class, it wasn’t instantly taken away if they saw the outline in your pocket, but you weren’t allowed to use it in class.
That seems reasonable.
In one of my class to become an high school teacher, we were thought about some best practices for learning and studying on your own.
Just the fact that you can see your phone (not the screen, just the body) is actively harming your ability to learn. It’s because phone are machines to notify you and just seeing, or even feeling it in your pocket, unconsciously makes you alert to its notifications.
The professor after that went on to say that, if you’re going to use a laptop, use it to actually take note, nothing else. Since the screen is so big, lots of people can see it, and scrolling through Facebook (or other) impacts your ability to listen (duh, you’re doing something else), but also to the others, because it take the attention away from the class, to the screen of the laptop, even if it isn’t your laptop. So even Uni student might have to think about how they use their devices…
The best thing about that class was that everything was back with studies! So this isn’t just the teacher saying “screw technology!”, but actual science!
I had an English teacher in 2015 who also based her cell phone rules around science too. It was “phones are allowed, but use them respectfully” on the basis that you are more likely to be focused if you have access to your technology and can quickly check a notification and then put it away. She said you are more distracted by a notification when you don’t know what it is, so we were always allowed to pull our phones out and check what was happening. Funnily enough, this freedom and mutual respect caused there to be minimal phone use in that classroom.
I have no doubt that it can improve the class dynamic! Trust is always a good thing to have a good respect relation between a teacher and students!
And I agree that having a notification and not being allowed to look at it is not useful, if I remember the study actually showed that. But what is definitely better is not being notified at all. To test that, they asked every student to leave the phone in the hallway, so in another room. I’m not talking about the feasibility (risk of theft and other things), but there is a clear impact.
And I was in HS at the same time as you, but honestly, the class dynamic today is way different than it used to be even less then 10 years ago. It surprised me during my internship! I actually had the same policy as your teacher (you can use your phone, respectfully), but clearly I didn’t master it… 😅
T9 texting without looking at your phone is a lost art.
A large part of me misses the simplicity of those old phones, and for some reason I really do miss T9…
As an adult with mild ADHD I can admit that my cellphone poisons productivity. I can imagine not doing so well in school if the same fully fledged dopamine machines existed when I was a kid.
At the same time, I can’t imagine a full ban on cellphones being the reasonable course of action. There’s probably a compromise in there somewhere.
As an adult with strong ADHD, I concur. I lock up my phone and keep it far away when working because it’s kryptonite for my already minimal ability to focus on the task at hand.
But cellphones became common-ish when I was in school, and the rule of the time was “it stays in your locker”. People were wary of theft and would usually bring them in turned off so teachers wouldn’t confiscate them, but it did the job of keeping phones out of hands in class.
I know parents want to have access to their kids 24/7, but that’s such a new mindset and I can’t imagine it does much good for kids’ development, either.
Right? This is going to sound all kids-these-days, but I remember when I was told to leave my personal laptop at home when I tried to use it in a computer class for the express purpose of learning the material in that class.
Yeah; I remember that I had a list of stuff that could be brought to class. Pens, pencils, erasers, official calculator, binder, textbooks. Anything else got binned if it was discovered. Even jackets and hats had to stay in the locker during class.
Secondary teacher here.
Trying to remove phones from the classroom entirely is just reinforcing that phones are for entertainment. It is a tool and needs to be handled like a tool: we should be teaching responsible use, and limiting it from those who have proved they can’t be responsible on a per-case basis.
When students use their phones responsibly, they can be powerful learning aids. And I have zero issues calling out individual students who refuse to use them responsibly and treating their actions like any other misdemeanor.
Thank you for wording this so tactfully. So many people fail to realize that a large portion of cell phone use is as a tool. As someone who has grown up with a phone, most of my use has been as a tool. People like to say “kids these days never talk to each other, everyone is always on their phones!” but my experience has been the opposite. Having my phone gives me and my friends something to talk about. We can pull up the video we’re referencing in 10 seconds. We can look something up immediately if we aren’t sure of it. We can look for places to go eat or activities to go do. We can easily research current events and find out what the actual facts are, instead of just going “I heard x” without anything to back it up.
All of this stems from the way we were taught to use technology. Our technology use in classrooms for research taught us how to look things up, how to find reputable sources, when it’s appropriate to use our devices, and how to use them with others. Most schools (at least where I am) are now one-to-one, which means every student has a computer in every class. People are quick to ban phones, but then turn around and say computers are fine. This makes no sense to me. They can both be used in nearly identical ways. If we’re removing phones from classrooms, then we better remove the computers too. And then we’re going to have people complaining because “this generation doesn’t know how to use a computer!” Well, guess what, it’s because you said they shouldn’t have them in the classroom.
I think cellphones should be banned in classrooms and allowed between classes. I’m not sure why they should need to be banned during students’ freetime. This is how it was when I was in high school during the very early years of smartphones and it worked out fine. If I wanted to listen to music while walking down the halls or during lunch, that was a really important coping mechanism for me with how dramatic high school can be. It also allowed me to keep in touch with my friends and meet them around the school. I think it’s overly reactionary to do a blanket ban like that. I completely understand the need to ban them within classrooms. That’s reasonable to me as classrooms should only be for learning.
At least when I was in secondary school teachers did not have to confiscate phones, reasonable usage of cell phones was permitted (or laptops for that matter) while unreasonable usage would first result in the instructor asking you to put your phone away and subsequently result in confiscation. Reasonable usage could be using a English-French dictionary online, or taking a photo of a white board. I think it also helped that the school wifi blocked social media and the building had horrendous reception due to the building style, and most VPNs would be blocked so it was difficult to circumvent anyways. I think a complete ban is unreasonable, students should learn how to use technology effectively to ameliorate their education while also learning when it is not appropriate to use it at all (e.g. when the teacher is lecturing).
Edit: I should add for primary school I feel like devices are significantly less useful, and only school owned devices should be used under supervision of staff if necessary (e.g. a computer lab, or a chromebook cart). I do not know how many students bring phones in that age group now, since when I went the most anyone had was an iPod usually except for the rare person with more.
I live in the USA, and phones are generally banned in schools here, although they’re allowed to be used while class is not in session.
In some cases though, kids have become violent and attacked teachers who have tried taking their phone away.
Banned in schools or banned in classes? You’re kind of saying both there…
Banned in classes
Sounds like a fabulous idea.
Looks like a ban on smartphones would be more reasonable, while allowing certain kinds of old school phones (the kind for example Hasidic Jews use), to allow for emergency contingencies.
Schools have dress codes, and people adapt to those. Maybe we just need tech codes.
This is just silly. Just ban the phones.
Right? I survived just fine withiut a cell phone until partway through high school. If there was an emergency, my parents would just call the school.
I grew up without a cell phone until like 3rd~4th year in university, cause I am old. (no, I don’t even have a message box thing that ask you to call a number back.)
But, depending on the kid’s age and situation, I think a phone is necessary. It allows you to record conversation, take photo/video. It’s a very powerful tool to deter bullying attempts if you teach the kid how to use it. (as you can set back up to cloud asap with data plans, even if the bully tried to take away phone the video is already recorded, you can even setup a live streaming app so it streams right away and archive on the cloud.)
The school wants to ban cause they don’t want to deal with the confrontations or why the teaching isn’t attracting the kids’ attention.
In Montreal, it is common for students after a certain age to start commuting back home with public transit. Using the school as the single point of contact is not always possible.
The ban isn’t preventing students from bringing a cell phone and keeping it turned off in their lockers all day.
As an aside, hello fellow Montrealer.
Yea, I didn’t read the article carefully and I was thinking of a blanket ban. My bad.
Parents are saying they are a lifeline. So, not so fast.
No it is not silly. You’re silly.
:|
I like the idea of a complete ban on cell phones during teaching periods, and maybe even on school grounds at all. I have no idea how to enforce such a ban and as mentioned in the article if schools are struggling to even contain violence, how are they going to manage cell phone use?
The article highlights an issue, there is something wrong with our schools. It is more then just the normal generational discomfort(though that is part of it). Again I don’t know the solution but I think we need to acknowledge that we are failing today’s students(they are not failing us because we are the adults). Then we can discuss how to improve things.
Ban phone just not the right thing. In nowaday, can get help if the person get school bully? Just click power button 5 times to call police. Something happen? have a call. give the chridren some money for snake or launch? phone. lost direction, phone.
“Don’t have phone in my day” is not a argument, is 2023 not 1990. So much thing change, don’t go backward. Just have a phone can be a warning for the people want to do bad thing, just like a nuke, is there, think before you do the thing.
The problem is the parent not the phone, just better educate the parent to enable the parent control. there is finger print, not password that can watch at the side to steal the password. No children know what is the right thing to do, if the parent not tell them, what is right and what is wrong. there no brain input, parent don’t do there job is not the reason to prevent the parent do there job and protect there children using the phone.
let’s just #AbolishGovernmentSchools
No, abolish homeschooling and religious schools. Enough with the propagation of idiocy.
