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

'Some old people love to grouse about how Things Were Better Then, and how Children Used To Respect Authority...'

I don't know if things were better then but (as a kid in the 70's) we certainly respected authority because the threat of physical violence was a real one.

I am not saying that was a good thing by the way, just explaining.

The second sentence of the article starts:

"Children will be allowed to bring their phones to school"

>Information diving on subjects you're interested in is one of the greatest boons of the modern age, and I think it's a terrible thing to deny a curious child. Yes a kid can spend all day every day on facebook or twitter or watching youtube videos, but to say all kids shouldn't have access because some might turn into little zombies is foolish.

I don't think you understand the core concept here.

See, the most important thing here is to make sure no kid has the opportunity to be zombified by media. And it's true that some will end up this way.

So, the kid who is competent to deal with the technology has no intrinsic right to that competence or the benefits that competence brings, because doing so would [theoretically] jeopardize those who aren't so gifted. Therefore Society has a moral right to suppress them.

That's the only logic that's going on here. And it's objectively correct: there are absolutely no long-term detriments to a society's ability to progress whatsoever when that society makes it policy to cut its most capable off at the knees.

> I played minesweeper on it about half a day everyday at school. It was the only way I had of staying awake ...

I think it's risky to assume that what we think is best for ourselves (as children) is in fact best for us.

It's even more risky extrapolating that over the set of { all children }

I'm a big fan of the precautionary principle, and I think that most definitely is applicable here, as the social, cognitive, and cultural risks are quite high.

It looks like your response is focused on the "download"/"wrote my own script" aspect of peterburkimsher's account, and that you want to make that more common.

I believe that Majestic121 is trying to point out that this ban is for the younger grades. Elementary school students rarely read Shakespeare.

Or am I wrong, and your intent is that reading Shakespeare in grade 6 should be "a normal thing that kids just do"?

FWIW, carrying too many heavy books is a known problem. In the US, from http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=117633&page=1 :

> Shelly Goodgold found that 55 percent of fifth- through eighth-grade students she surveyed carry backpack loads weighing more than 15 percent of their body weight. One-third of those students said they've suffered back pain.

In Hong Kong, from http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/13108... :

> Despite government reminders to parents and students, children are still carrying school bags that are too heavy for them, leading to serious spinal damage

> "Studies indicate that 96 per cent of students carry school bags which are heavier than 15 per cent of their weight," says Dr Grace Szeto Pui-yuk, an associate professor at the Polytechnic University's department of rehabilitation sciences.

That last one, from 2013, ends:

> The adoption of electronic textbooks (e-books), which is encouraged by the Education Bureau as part of e-learning programmes, might help reduce the weight on young shoulders, but that's not always feasible.

> Secondary school teacher Mo Kin-ping says her school considered using e-books. "But we found out they were more expensive than the actual hardcopies, and students may not be able to afford them."