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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

#81

Post by sgift »

saurik wrote: post #46
sgift wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> School should help incorporate good habits into a child's routine, such as reading books, and nailing reliance on phones into children is not something we want to be doing in schools. School should help incorporate good habits into a child's routine, such as being outside, and nailing reliance on books into children is not something we want to be doing in schools. Slightly paraphrased, same content. Care to elabora…

You can't rely on books as you can't carry enough of them with you for them to replace having to know things, and a phone is a fundamentally different thing from even an infinite number of books anyway, as it is a tool that let's you communicate--in private--with people around the world. It is totally legitimate for someone to have an issue with one of these objects and not the other entirely different object.

Well, maybe I use my phone very different from others. For me the "read things on it" aspect is the most important part. Before I had a smartphone (I got my first two years ago) I tended to carry five or six books around all the time. Now I don't need to anymore and can still read whenever I want.

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

#83

Post by aluhut »

pavelludiq wrote: post #45

I had a flip phone with no internet in HS, I played minesweeper on it about half a day everyday at school. It was the only way I had of staying awake during some of my classes. I literally fell asleep during class if I didn't have some stimulation. Not having that would've been a torture since falling asleep is a good way to get in trouble. Before I had my phone I drew. About 90% of my ink expenditure in school was d…

Is this HN's version of r/iamverysmart?

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

#84

Post by aluhut »

greglindahl wrote: post #80
aluhut wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has nothing to do with independence. Kids need the attention of their parent. We are social beings. Those zombie parents kids develop into something the parents will later want to medicate shifting the blame on the kid. In no way will there be something BETTER.

When I grew up, I had long periods of time during which my parents weren't around. I socialized with other children. Imagine that!

You are aware that there are playgrounds and ages where parents have to be around their kids are you?

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

#85

Post by mFixman »

Blanket bans of this kind rarely work, and policies like this are usually caused by other factors.

My primary school had a concrete playground without any trees, and school policy forbid us from running (so we wouldn't hurt ourselves), from playing games like tag (so we wouldn't run) or clapping each other's hands (because we could hurt ourselves). We also couldn't play card games to protect against gambling, nor gather in a group of 5 or more people for some reason. I would have loved a cellphone or anything not to be bored out of my mind during break, but that wouldn't be necessary with a more reasonable school policy.

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

#86

Post by sgift »

adrianN wrote: post #72
rejschaap wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Books are distraction machines on a different level. When I become immersed in books I tend to deprive myself of sleep, neglect my daily chores and procrastinate my work. I do feel much better about periods where I read a lot, otherwise I tend to incessantly grab my phone to check blogs, news sites and stock/crypto prices.

Books don't exploit every psychological trick there is to try to cram as many ads in your face as possible

I'm not sure when the last time was I saw an ad on my phone. The only example I can think of would be the Kindle app telling me of comparable books, which seems no different from all the tech books I have which have book recommendations on the last pages.

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

#87

Post by IMTDb »

koonsolo wrote: post #71
abootstrapper wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The school has a phone in case of an emergency. So do the teachers.

Not on the way to and from school

Phones can be brought to the school (and brought back home). They plan to implement (locked) boxes at the entrance of the building. So no worries there.

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

#88

Post by hycaria »

sgift wrote: post #81
saurik wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't rely on books as you can't carry enough of them with you for them to replace having to know things, and a phone is a fundamentally different thing from even an infinite number of books anyway, as it is a tool that let's you communicate--in private--with people around the world. It is totally legitimate for someone to have an issue with one of these objects and not the other entirely different object.

Well, maybe I use my phone very different from others. For me the "read things on it" aspect is the most important part. Before I had a smartphone (I got my first two years ago) I tended to carry five or six books around all the time. Now I don't need to anymore and can still read whenever I want.

Good for you, but maybe consider we're talking about children there, who probably didn't even pick up the habit of reading yet ? (read about the catastrophic reading proficiency in children nowadays if you have any doubts about this kind of claim).

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

#89

Post by opportune »

mFixman wrote: post #85

Blanket bans of this kind rarely work, and policies like this are usually caused by other factors. My primary school had a concrete playground without any trees, and school policy forbid us from running (so we wouldn't hurt ourselves), from playing games like tag (so we wouldn't run) or clapping each other's hands (because we could hurt ourselves). We also couldn't play card games to protect against gambling, nor gat…

Kids will find something else to do if you take away one thing they weren't using responsibly. The problem is when, as in your case, you take everything away

Additionally, just because something gets a blanket ban doesn't mean the intent is to blanket ban. If the blanket ban simply encourages kids to only check their phones during breaks or when they go to the bathroom, that still has a pretty positive effect on kids using their phones throughout the day.

I honestly can't imagine the thought process behind doing what your primary school did. When I was in primary school the only restriction on play was that you couldn't tackle or do anything else that would obviously hurt people. I think you would legitimately either need to be a terrible person, a complete idiot, or both to ban essentially all forms of play.

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

#90

Post by posterboy »

jacquesm wrote: post #40
sgift wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> School should help incorporate good habits into a child's routine, such as reading books, and nailing reliance on phones into children is not something we want to be doing in schools. School should help incorporate good habits into a child's routine, such as being outside, and nailing reliance on books into children is not something we want to be doing in schools. Slightly paraphrased, same content. Care to elabora…

Phones tend to be distraction machines, books much less so.

I used to read comic books in class, though that might be a stretch of the term "book".
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