I worry that times have changed, and adults proposing these rules may not “get it.”
Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
171–180 of 263 posts
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#172Since the cat is out of the bag regarding mandatory education, I don't support this. Allowing kids to use smartphones freely in schools 1) will act as a very good filter and 2) will keep the most annoying kids entertained thus allowing the kids who pass through the former filter to learn without interruptions. The way it works now, we're just going for the lowest common denominator. The results are obvious.
Majorly oppose this proposal for a bunch of reasons. Also, fun fact: phone confiscation (except during midterms/finals) is a punishable offense at my university.
At a university level that's a pretty reasonable rule to have. Hell, even during exams, why confiscate? If the phone would be a means of cheating, the rule should simply be that using one is an immediate fail. That's how all my university classes did it, if it wasn't an open book exam, all phones were to be placed either screen down on the student's desk or left in their bag.
Worked perfectly fine.
I only ever had one class (which wasn't an elective) where computers and phones weren't allowed even during lectures, which was ironically an intro class on programming in C. Was a waste of time because the professor sucked and for me doubly so because I had already been using C for many years by then. Attendance was also mandatory so I just sat in the back and mostly slept through it.
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#173Going against HN's usual anti-smartphone thing, I think this is incredibly dumb. Luckily no one really cares much about what UNESCO calls for. Outright bans on smartphones in schools are no different from the video game, TV screen time, "kids will only play games on computers" and other related superstitions that were in vogue back in the early 2000s. All they did was make parents feel validated (without having to pu…
I'm with you on this. I can understand controlling the use of phones during class because it's disrespectful for the teachers work, but a complete ban is just dumb and seems like virtue signalling. If this is a problem for you as a parent, you have the choice of not buying your kid the phone in the first place, or not letting him take it to school. I thinks that any rule or law that takes away from the parents the re…
> If this is a problem for you as a parent, you have the choice of not buying your kid the phone in the first place, or not letting him take it to school.
Whenever I see arguments like these, I always feel that the person likely isn’t a parent of a teen.
There is a real sense of isolation and exclusion that teens feel when they don’t have cell phones or aren’t allowed to use them. The consequences are likely (for some parents/teens) worse than letting them have them.
Only when phones are more widely seen as shameful or unhealthy to have before adulthood will that not be the case. Until then, some other form of banning seems to be the only way to level the playing field and make it less isolating.
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
> playing video games in the middle of class. Laughs in GameBoy. Seriously, you have to be elder gen x or older to exist in a time where handheld consoles of some flavor were not available. And there’s always been other forms of entertainment, be it passing notes, talking, or daydreaming.
My teacher would have ripped the gameboy out of my hand and confiscated it for the rest of the school year. Teachers do not that have that kind of freedom today. Also, if your argument is "gameboy existed". People just did not use it as much. Today smartphone usage in class is rampant. Also gameboy games were not anywhere near as addicting as games and social media are today.
> Also gameboy games were not anywhere near as addicting as games and social media are today.
Have you never played Tetris? Any Gameboy game where you have to level up (like Final Fantasy) will also be a severe temptation as you have something productive to do while the teacher yammers about stuff you either already know, has nothing to do with you (e.g. talking to another student), or don't care about (like really I do not care about the difference between "predicate nominative" and "subject complement").
Also the original Game Boy was a bit too big to bring into a class and not get caught, but Game Boy Advance SP was perfect.
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
> playing video games in the middle of class. Laughs in GameBoy. Seriously, you have to be elder gen x or older to exist in a time where handheld consoles of some flavor were not available. And there’s always been other forms of entertainment, be it passing notes, talking, or daydreaming.
My teacher would have ripped the gameboy out of my hand and confiscated it for the rest of the school year. Teachers do not that have that kind of freedom today. Also, if your argument is "gameboy existed". People just did not use it as much. Today smartphone usage in class is rampant. Also gameboy games were not anywhere near as addicting as games and social media are today.
No, my argument is that it doesn't take a smartphone to be distracted in class. And that electronic entertainment devices have been available for many decades.
None of this is new. Children being distracted in classrooms is nothing new. If there's children, there's socializing, playing games, and ignoring adults for the much more interesting other children.'
Cell phones are just the new boogyman, like CD players and walkmen and gameboys etc. were back in the day.
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
> playing video games in the middle of class. Laughs in GameBoy. Seriously, you have to be elder gen x or older to exist in a time where handheld consoles of some flavor were not available. And there’s always been other forms of entertainment, be it passing notes, talking, or daydreaming.
Legislation doesn't exist in a vacuum. I imagine there are more smartphones in classroom today that the number of GameBoy ever sold.
FWIW, there were more gameboys sold than there are people under 18.
73M children, 118M gameboys.
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
> playing video games in the middle of class. Laughs in GameBoy. Seriously, you have to be elder gen x or older to exist in a time where handheld consoles of some flavor were not available. And there’s always been other forms of entertainment, be it passing notes, talking, or daydreaming.
Are you serious… as a kid pulling out a Gameboy in the middle of class and just sitting there playing a game would feel like a death sentence. The equivalent of walking into a bank with an assault rifle firing wildly in the air.
And yet children playing games on their phones and aren't the equivalent of your wildly inappropriate metaphor?
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#178Going against HN's usual anti-smartphone thing, I think this is incredibly dumb. Luckily no one really cares much about what UNESCO calls for. Outright bans on smartphones in schools are no different from the video game, TV screen time, "kids will only play games on computers" and other related superstitions that were in vogue back in the early 2000s. All they did was make parents feel validated (without having to pu…
> Outright bans on smartphones in schools are no different from the video game, TV screen time Back then kids were not watching tv or playing video games in the middle of class. I remember when I was in school people were texting on their flip phones, I can't imagine the extent of distractions in school today. I used to pay attention in class only because there was nothing more entertaining to do. If I had a phone an…
Same here. I was in high school from 2004-2008 and kids were already distracted in class texting each other. It would have been much worse with smartphones and I would have been among those distracted with one and I'm certain I would have learned nothing.
A small number of kids having the ability to restrain themselves and not stare at their phone all day is not a great reason to keep phones in the classroom.
Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's like prohibition, the forbidden fruit. Denial will only increase the want. It's better to teach moderation early than it is to try to curb the want for 7+ years. My kid has had an iPad from age 1 or so, with kiosk mode enabled and a baby game that made funny noises when they slapped the screen. They got a phone at age 7, just before starting first grade. No Youtube, no TikTok and screen time enforced per categor…
I don't want to be that guy but this sounds horrible. You shouldn't treat reading as a chore or as something you have to do in order to watch TV. I think it's better if you let them watch TV for 1-2 hours per day and that's it. Let them read if they want to, don't force them like that.
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Re: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can speak of my case in Barcelona, I used to walk to schools since I was around 11-12. A 20 minutes walks in a pretty centric location, also took the seldom bus/metro to go there or visit some friend.
Okay, but presumably most school kids don't live in pretty centric locations.
In my country, middle schools are small, so a 10k city can have 3-4, and most kids do indeed live in centric locations, which mean only a fourth of them at most don't walk/bike there.
Also, you get assigned a public school depending on where you live (the closest) so unless you go to a private school, you're going to the closest one.