How about teaching kids self control and concentration?
sure, we can also teach them to not eat junk food while living inside mcdonalds, how hard can it be, its just self control.
Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
21–30 of 263 posts
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#22Not sure about you guys, but I plan to not give my kids a phone until they reach at least the age of 14 (7 and 3 atm) Is this realistic? Any experiences?
I have had coworkers who wanted to stick with a dumb phone. It sounds great to give junior a dumb phone until they're "old enough", but not much communication happens via sms. It's all done in other apps. Your kids will be excluded from a lot of conversations and events. They will feel ostricized socially and will inevitably be frustrated at you because of it. Having no phone versus a dumb phone would make the resent…
I think the next logical step would be to find a community of like-minded parents and set those kids up to be friends.
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#23Not sure about you guys, but I plan to not give my kids a phone until they reach at least the age of 14 (7 and 3 atm) Is this realistic? Any experiences?
As a former child I would likely scrounge enough to get something and simply exist with WiFi
Phones are cheap, kids are clever, etc. Unintended consequences seem like a guarantee
Granted, I'm not a parent
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#24Thank you. I support this. Want us to teach your kids effectively? Then stop sending them to school with highly addictive distractions. I'll also add that I've yet to see a single use case where a student's phone was a necessity at school (remember that school offices have phones for emergencies!)... yet I have seen dozens (hundreds?) of instances where the phones produced a negative outcome: cyber bullying, playing…
Cannot a phone be used as a motivation then? E.g. take it away for bad grades.
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#25Not sure about you guys, but I plan to not give my kids a phone until they reach at least the age of 14 (7 and 3 atm) Is this realistic? Any experiences?
As someone who didn't have a phone until 12 or 13, please do, BUT make sure you do it right. I use my phone for maybe 5 minutes a day excluding essential stuff, have 0 social media, and have no interest in increasing either number.
If you just hold it over their head, they'll go find some other kid whose parents' entire parenting philosophy is "give iPad". You should make sure to explain to them why you're restricting the tech (and be open if you think the kids are mature enough to understand). "You could download bad things that spy on you or get exposed to bad content - it even happens to a lot of adults" is a much better explanation than "ooo spooky bad stuff on internet".
My final suggestion, and what I wish my parents had done, is allowed me to use the internet freely, with supervision (and an adblocker). Instead of letting them go on YouTube or Reddit to watch random streamers, let (and encourage) them to try learning Spanish, Python, electronic music, whatever. It would have been extremely fun for me as a kid to learn about "advanced" stuff like coding actual websites or messing with the terminal instead of playing with the sanitized block-code websites. They'll also pick up useful skills in the process, and be entertained in a productive way. Much better than restricting or allowing everything imo.
Also, the fact that you're considering this makes you a better parent than half the population nowadays. Keep your kids from consuming garbage and they will thank you later!
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#26How about teaching kids self control and concentration?
Because these things are addictive? You can say the same for drugs, alcohol, and most people that consume those are adults, how can you expect kids to do what adults can't? You see 90% of people in the buses, trains looking their phones like idiots (including me). It is very difficult because it creates addiction.
Reminds me of looking at old photos of people in bars or planes all smoking.
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#27Not sure about you guys, but I plan to not give my kids a phone until they reach at least the age of 14 (7 and 3 atm) Is this realistic? Any experiences?
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. - Mike Tyson
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#28I don't see a more elegant solution than this, but it's a bummer. Smartphones are so useful; the world's information AND a computer in your pocket! The ideal would be to give students and parents an avenue to remove/combat the addictive elements of their smartphones, but most students (and parents) don't see those elements as a problem, but a feature.
We did just fine in schools before smartphones. Perhaps even better .
Do you mean to imply that education outcomes are unrelated to technology or that advancing technology may make them worse? Do you think there's a defensible abstraction of your claim?
We also did "just fine, if not better" in my role at the bank (vaguely) before digitization. I assure you, the efficiency upgrades of advancing technology pay for themselves many times over, even if there are hiccups and new learning to match.
Phones enable more education than ever before. The limiting factor is now motivation.
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#29I support this completely. I would go the extra step of not making internet capable phones accessible to under 14 year olds in general.
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#30How about teaching kids self control and concentration?
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