In California, a high school teacher complains that students watch Netflix on their phones during class. In Maryland, a chemistry teacher says students use gambling apps to place bets during the school day.
Around the country, educators say students routinely send Snapchat messages in class, listen to music and shop online, among countless other examples of how smartphones distract from teaching and learning.
The hold that phones have on adolescents in America today is well-documented, but teachers say parents are often not aware to what extent students use them inside the classroom. And increasingly, educators and experts are speaking with one voice on the question of how to handle it: Ban phones during classes.
There are a lot of things to consider here. The world has changed.
Kids have legitimate reasons for having a cell phone today. It makes it infinitely easier to coordinate pickups, care of siblings, emergencies, job scheduling, etc. it shouldn’t be used during class, but ae a parent i have enough legit reasons i want my daughter to have her phone on her and as long as its not being used during class, then the school can fuck right off. Ill decide whats best for my child. If she uses it during class, give her detention or whatever. Or tell me and ill handle itat home.
Beyond that, i dont want a teacher confiscating a device that costs several hundred dollars. That would lead to teachers or admins mysteriously “losing” the phone, only for it to show up on eBay.
There have also heen numerous high profile incidents of the bad behavior of teachers, students, and security personnel. I kinda like the idea of kids being able to not only defend themselves but also provide evidence to authorities that would probably have not believed them otherwise.
Today, phones are a ubiquitous paret of everyone’s lives. Schools are better off trying to figure out how to integrate the technology into their lessons instead of a futile war against them.
That’s true the world has changed and we’re much more an interconnected and online society than before. And a case can be made that phones have good uses as you point out.
But, coordinating pickups and job scheduling and such still shouldn’t be done during class time. The problem here is that kids are allowing themselves to be distracted by their phones, and are using them in harmful ways - I’ve seen it myself, my neices and nephews talking about sex pictures they have been sent by their classmates during school hours.
I think phones and laptops definitely belong in modern schoolrooms but they do need to be regulated in some way. Kids are not as well-heeled as adults are and don’t see the dangers.
I’m pretty sure the issue being discussed is the usage of phones during class time. Literally, it’s in the blurb. You didn’t even have to click on the article.
You would be surprised how much shit happens during class time.