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Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#11

Post by jtreminio »

ethbr0 wrote: post #2

There's a phrase for something that people can't stop using -- addictive substance. We (and companies) need to ditch the equivocation and be honest about what we created. ( Edit ) > Parents have been split on the issue, with many critics insisting their children need phones in case of an emergency. Is a red herring and justification for helicopter parents to normalize their micromanaging. Someone shouldn't be texting…

> Is a red herring and justification for helicopter parents to normalize their micromanaging.

We live in Plano, TX, just a few minutes south of the Allen Outlet massacre.

Yesterday my son texted me at noon "Shooting threat at school" and "It’s a rumor though but a lot of people are leaving anyway".

You can bet your life I was in my car and speeding down the street to get him out ASAP within 60 seconds of receiving the text.

The reality of schools and public life in the USA today means my family not being without a way to contact each other immediately, in real time, is a no-go.

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#12

Post by williamcotton »

But many students — who use their phones for listening to music, arranging rides home, checking on grades or assignments — are unhappy with the crackdowns. Some check in with parents or coaches by text. Some think the decision should be theirs, not a school dictate.

Parents have been split on the issue, with many critics insisting their children need phones in case of an emergency.

What kind of emergency can’t be handled by calling the school or, as a student, asking for your phone or access to a landline?

What kind of private emergency decisions need to be made by 10th graders sitting in English class that require them to respond within seconds?

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#13

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

ethbr0 wrote: post #2

There's a phrase for something that people can't stop using -- addictive substance. We (and companies) need to ditch the equivocation and be honest about what we created. ( Edit ) > Parents have been split on the issue, with many critics insisting their children need phones in case of an emergency. Is a red herring and justification for helicopter parents to normalize their micromanaging. Someone shouldn't be texting…

>active shooter situation

I feel like active shooters shouldn't be a situation in a school in the first place.

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#14

Post by justrealist »

ethbr0 wrote: post #2

There's a phrase for something that people can't stop using -- addictive substance. We (and companies) need to ditch the equivocation and be honest about what we created. ( Edit ) > Parents have been split on the issue, with many critics insisting their children need phones in case of an emergency. Is a red herring and justification for helicopter parents to normalize their micromanaging. Someone shouldn't be texting…

I think it's more to justify refusing to parent.

Kids will refuse to give up their phones, make a big fight about it, so some parents would rather invent an excuse to give up and let the kid win.

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#15

Post by hypertele-Xii »

coldpie wrote: post #6
throwaway22032 wrote: post #4

This article is super surprising. You mean phones weren't already banned? I would have expected it to be like taking a Game Boy or a laptop into a lesson, instant confiscation until the end of the day.

A many-hundreds-of-dollars device that is the core nexus of all of one's social, parental, scholastic, and entertainment lives, which every student has on them at all times every single day, and which every single adult in the country is glued to at all times during the day, is a very different problem from one or two kids fiddling with GameBoys, yes. It's a new problem. It's going to take some time & experimentation…

Adjusted for inflation, the Game Boy cost $215 upon launch.

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#16

Post by reaperman »

ethbr0 wrote: post #2

There's a phrase for something that people can't stop using -- addictive substance. We (and companies) need to ditch the equivocation and be honest about what we created. ( Edit ) > Parents have been split on the issue, with many critics insisting their children need phones in case of an emergency. Is a red herring and justification for helicopter parents to normalize their micromanaging. Someone shouldn't be texting…

I agree that phones/apps/social media/video games are addictive (the ones that aren't just don't get popular) but I disagree with your proposed framework for identifying "addictive" things for children in schools. Schools are very artificial environments with a massive lack of stimulation and self-agency for young developing human children. Damn near anything is "addictive" in that environment - books, doodling, origami, annoying people around you, etc.

Would be interesting if phones would be "addictive" to children used to playing outdoors in autonomous groups in (semi-nomadic, not city-based) pre-colombian civilizations.

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#18

Post by ajsnigrutin »

scythe wrote: post #5

Separate comment, because I don't want to hijack the archive comment: >with many critics insisting their children need phones in case of an emergency. >[...] >But educators and experts say students need to focus on their surroundings during a crisis, not their cellphones. It's pleasing to see the rhetoric shift on this one. Hopefully, in a few years, we'll all regard it as a funny mistake that phones were ever allowe…

Out here, in some schools they don't even allow phones on multi-day school field trips. The class teacher has a single, dumb, "class phone", all the parents know the number, all the kids can use it at apropriate times to call their parents, so all the "emergency" needs are covered, but the kids are not glued to a phone half the time there.

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#19

Post by SapporoChris »

throwaway22032 wrote: post #4

This article is super surprising. You mean phones weren't already banned? I would have expected it to be like taking a Game Boy or a laptop into a lesson, instant confiscation until the end of the day.

From the article "Most school systems already had cellphone bans in 2020, according to federal data, " ~77% of the school system had a ban in 2020.

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#20

Post by GalenErso »

Octokiddie wrote: post #9

Parents have not idea whatsoever of the destruction that phones have wrought on the education system, both in the large and in the small. Students who claim otherwise are gaslighting their parents. Parents are unfortunately all too willing to believe the lies because of course their child is above average and would never completely tune out of class for another hit on the electronic crack pipe. At this point, the pro…

I didn't get my first real phone until after high school, while everyone else had one.

I graduated salutatorian. I was able to focus on my homework after school for hours without distractions. I had a computer at home, but it was pretty crappy.

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