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France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

theguardian.com

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Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#51

Post by saurik »

michaelgrafl wrote: post #42
latch wrote: post #17

Shouldn't this be a matter for individual schools or school boards (the article says some already have this in place)? I like the policy, but as I get older, I wonder why we have so many laws that control so much of what we can and can't do. I agree this one's pretty benign, but it still seems like an excess of authority. When I was in school, if I distracted another student or played on my calculator, I'd get in tro…

I agree with you in general, but I guess it's a matter of pragmatism and establishing social norms. Here in Austria the newly elected right wing government is going to cancel plans of banning smoking completely in restaurants (up till now there was a solution that involved having a separate smoking area if your premises exceeded a certain dimension). I'm not for a smoking ban, because I think it's too much of an intr…

As someone who grew up in the 80s near Chicago and then moved to California for the second half of my so-far life around 2000, and thereby had to spend an immense amount of time being looked at like I was insane when I went to a restaurant and automatically said "table for two, non-smoking"... no: you smoking in a restaurant is absolutely not a "personal lifestyle choice" :/ it is forcing everyone else in that restaurant--many (if not hopefully most) of whom might have been lucky or smart enough to never get addicted to cigarettes--to breathe the fumes from your cancer-causing death stick, and while you might think "if the restaurant is large enough you can pull this off", once you learn what it is like to eat in a restaurant that has neither people smoking immediately nor the lingering scents of smoke embedded in every porous surface of the entire building it is amazing how sickening it is to return to places that allow people to smoke in enclosed spaces. If you want to smoke as a "personal lifestyle choice" you should do it at home, where the only person you are killing is yourself.

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#52

Post by TeMPOraL »

jageen wrote: post #43

I think they must specify they banned smart mobile phones OR mobile phones By reading all comments I think problem is in smart mobile phones. which have extra features for user entertainment which also act as distraction (for student during study) Before coming to any decision we should not forgot that phone can also use as medium of communication with our guardian in emergency and emergency is something we could not…

Dumbphones had games and entertainment features since probably the first model ever released. And let's not forget that any form of communication is itself entertainment, especially in school context.

> Before coming to any decision we should not forgot that phone can also use as medium of communication with our guardian in emergency and emergency is something we could not predict.

Technically they can, but schools usually place responsibility for handling emergency contact on the school staff.

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#53

Post by TeMPOraL »

Majestic121 wrote: post #41
peterburkimsher wrote: post #37

I think this is a bad move. When I was in school, I didn't want to carry heavy books all the time. I downloaded Shakespeare and other eBooks, and wrote my own script to convert the text into 1000-character iPod Notes. When someone forgot their book to class, I could share mine with them. Will other portable electronics be banned, or only communication devices? What about the Ti-84 calculator, which is still required…

Would you agree that using electronic devices to "download Shakespeare" is highly unusual in primary school, and that most kids just use their phones to play games/watch YouTube and other distractions?

The deeper question is - how do we make it not unusual, but a normal things that kids just do?

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#54

Post by icelancer »

j9461701 wrote: post #33

>The minister said the ban was also a “public health message to families”, adding: “It’s good that children are not too often, or even at all, in front of a screen before the age of seven.” I remember being a little kid and wanting to learn about space and submarines and sharks, and not being able to. I'd read my local library's books on those subjects, but I lived in a little town with a puny library so quickly exha…

>The minister said the ban was also a “public health message to families”, adding: “It’s good that children are not too often, or even at all, in front of a screen before the age of seven.”

Citation-fucking-required for this one, with conclusive evidence proving that it's true for all kids under seven. AKA he pulled it out of his ass.

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#55

Post by abootstrapper »

zelos wrote: post #36

Can we limit them for use by parents as well? Playgrounds seem to be the place parents go to look at Facebook while their kids yell "look at me mummy" forlornly.

Cut parents some slack and give children some credit. Everyone is going to be just fine (possibly better) if dad gets a tiny break and junior gets a small taste of independence.

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#56

Post by rejschaap »

My kids are still young, but I've been thinking about what is the right moment to give them mobile phones. Ideally, I would wait like to wait until middle school and then hope they will put them into their locker during class. I think concentration is one of the important skills to cultivate, I'm probably biased because it has been so important in my career. Phones are designed to distract and break concentration, responsible phone usage seems important. Also, I see kids cycling while using their phones all the time in Holland. If I would ever catch my kids doing that they will have to hand in their phones immediately.

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#57

Post by eesmith »

dovdovdov wrote: post #20
latch wrote: post #17

Shouldn't this be a matter for individual schools or school boards (the article says some already have this in place)? I like the policy, but as I get older, I wonder why we have so many laws that control so much of what we can and can't do. I agree this one's pretty benign, but it still seems like an excess of authority. When I was in school, if I distracted another student or played on my calculator, I'd get in tro…

Today teachers can get suspended if they even set an angry look on the pupils. I guess they hope people will abide the law at least. https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/1400/5ab76...

Neither of those are true, not in any systemic sense.

Some old people love to grouse about how Things Were Better Then, and how Children Used To Respect Authority. It's been that way for millennia.

You ever read Heinlein? Back in the 1950s, his "Have Spacesuit Will Travel" complained about how schools were too touchy-feely, intent more on having students feel good than providing a good education.

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#58

Post by TeMPOraL »

hux_ wrote: post #11

Good move. Should be extended to colleges and workspaces too where any sort of concentrated work/discipline is required. Nobody will die.

Yeah, if you want to make better places for concentrated work, how about leaving alone this voluntary source of distraction, which is in a big part a coping mechanism for staying sane while facing the bullshit at work? Maybe let's focus on the second big distractor - other people. As in, meetings, open offices and unnecessary teamwork.

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#59

Post by motdiem »

I think it's mostly posturing. Mobile phones were already banned in class, and this was well enforced. But many kids, especially in cities, take public transportation to get to middle school. My experience with middle school in Paris is that it's also very unreliable schedule-wise. When school suddenly finishes 2 hours early, I appreciate getting a text message from my kid telling me what they're up to. It looks to me that it'll be hard to enforce reliably - are they going to search backpacks, and keep phones in lockers during the times kids are in school ?

Re: France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools

#60

Post by motdiem »

rejschaap wrote: post #56

My kids are still young, but I've been thinking about what is the right moment to give them mobile phones. Ideally, I would wait like to wait until middle school and then hope they will put them into their locker during class. I think concentration is one of the important skills to cultivate, I'm probably biased because it has been so important in my career. Phones are designed to distract and break concentration, re…

middle school was the right time for me, mostly because their social life became so active that it was overtaking my own phone most weekends just to coordinate their activities...
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