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Minnesota middle school students 'seem happy' after cellphone ban

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Re: Minnesota middle school students 'seem happy' after cellphone ban

#111

Post by superb_dev »

talldatethrow wrote: post #68
ksenzee wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People will think poorly that I’m talking down a romantic partner Well, yes. Relationships don’t do well when one of the partners has this much contempt for the other. There’s a difference between knowing in your own mind she’s not the best at her job, and calling her a “ditzy” “illogical” “girl” in public.

I don't call her that in public.

I don’t know why everyone got caught up telling this public forum is public. Saying that about a partner anywhere is pretty awful, public or not.

Re: Minnesota middle school students 'seem happy' after cellphone ban

#112

Post by MikeTheGreat »

talldatethrow wrote: post #56
s1artibartfast wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>she has trouble controlling her own students because I believe they themselves have realized she's inconsistent and illogical, so anything goes. They do something, she says something they don't respect, they continue, she gives up This really shouldn't be surprising to anyone. Even 2 year old children can understand authority, power dynamics, and contests of will. For that matter, a 6 month old puppy will understand…

What part? That it exists as stated? Or do you believe that every single teacher in California should be deciding how to teach what verbs are, or how dividing works, in their own way however they choose? Is that really better than finding the best explanation, worksheets, and using that? Because right now there's a classroom in California being taught the worst possible way how to divide, out of all the other classro…

It's worth pointing out that different students are different people; each person has their unique background and knowledge when they first arrive in a classroom. If you've got a student who's struggling with they're going to have a real hard time with further math if you don't provide some support for them (and even then they'll still have a hard time, you'll just be helping them - it'll be similar to someone spotting you while you do bench presses near the limit of what you can handle).

There is no "best explanation, best worksheet" any more than there's a "best shoe size, best cut/style of pants".

Hire good teachers who care about their students, and let them figure out how to best address the needs of their students in that particular classroom.

Re: Minnesota middle school students 'seem happy' after cellphone ban

#113

Post by tick_tock_tick »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #87
talldatethrow wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What part? That it exists as stated? Or do you believe that every single teacher in California should be deciding how to teach what verbs are, or how dividing works, in their own way however they choose? Is that really better than finding the best explanation, worksheets, and using that? Because right now there's a classroom in California being taught the worst possible way how to divide, out of all the other classro…

First, I object to the idea Every teacher gets to decide what they teach. There is a very prescriptive list of what the curriculum must contain, and it is assessed by standardize tests. Second, teachers aren't fungible robots. They are humans with personalities, interests, and passions. Education works best when teachers are engaged. I think you underestimate the value provided by flexibility. you might be able to re…

3/4 of teacher believe in "learning styles" which we figured out was bunk science pretty much the instant it came out. It sucks that we'll probably crush the great teacher but forcing so much standardization but the simple fact is most teachers can't be trusted to actually make good decisions or teach well.

Re: Minnesota middle school students 'seem happy' after cellphone ban

#114

Post by elbasti »

duxup wrote: post #59

One of the issues was cellphones in the bathroom. I don’t think the staff wanted be constantly patrolling and dealing with kids in the bathroom. I can tell you I’m happy to not be getting constant emails about cell phones that you just know parents who don’t care aren’t reading/ won’t do anything. I have a child in that specific school.

The analogy couldn't be more perfect--social media is modern-day cigarettes.

Re: Minnesota middle school students 'seem happy' after cellphone ban

#115

Post by gnicholas »

klyrs wrote: post #99
gnicholas wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't refer to "senior year"? I don't think of that as cutesy at all — just descriptive. Do you refer to university by these 'cutesy' names? Or is it grade 13-16?

Caveat, my kid is still in elementary school, and I don't really interact with high schoolers yet. In my time in university here, I didn't hear that language being used. Wikipedia tells me that Canadians use "first year" to indicate its first year students, but "frosh week" is a thing. I did my undergrad in the US, though. Even there, if I ever heard somebody say "sophomore," it would have come from the mouth of a co…

Can I ask what region you went to college in? I'm familiar with schools in several regions (went to college in PA and graduate school at a UC) and people regularly used these terms IME. I'm curious to know where they're not used (or if this is a more recent development — I graduated law school 15 years ago).

Re: Minnesota middle school students 'seem happy' after cellphone ban

#116

Post by technothrasher »

lukev wrote: post #9

I'm a little surprised this is newsworthy... this is already the policy at my kid's middle school (NC public schools.) Is it that uncommon? I get that it's probably harder to enforce into the upper grades...

According to my high school junior, it's laughably impossible to enforce. They have to put their phones in the "phone hotel" at the beginning of the day and can only retrieve them at the end. Ok, so any kid who cares just brings an old phone to drop in the phone hotel and keeps their real phone with them. My son says he doesn't even bother with that trick, as anything he might want to do with his phone during the day (which is mostly either message friends or scroll social media) he can do with the computer he is required to have in class.

Re: Minnesota middle school students 'seem happy' after cellphone ban

#117

Post by tstrimple »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #18

[flagged]

Turns out raising kids is hard and it’s easier to ban stuff than have conversations with your children over reasonable use. They can’t parent their children effectively, so they seek systems to control everyone’s children so they don’t feel guilty.

Re: Minnesota middle school students 'seem happy' after cellphone ban

#118

Post by matteoraso »

donatj wrote: post #27
tempsy wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a weird comment. Did you really think most schools widely police cell phone usage in the year 2023?

I am well aware that they don't police it. What I am questioning is the why. Why did it stop. Why have the attitudes towards personal technology in schools swung so quickly? Phones in schools seem like nothing but a distraction.

>What I am questioning is the why. Why did it stop.

Where do you even start? For a kid raised on phones, asking them to stop using their phone feels like asking them to cut off their hand. I imagine that most schools do have anti-phone policies, but there's a point where it's just too hard to enforce. Like other people have also mentioned, parents often pressure their kids to have phones in high school. As someone who went to high school after smartphones became popular, my mom would get upset when I want to school (or anywhere) without a phone on me. That means that teachers have to deal with a student body that's completely unwilling to follow the rules and parents that will back them up if you ever try. I certainly wouldn't bother enforcing a phone ban if I was a teacher.

Re: Minnesota middle school students 'seem happy' after cellphone ban

#119

Post by zztop44 »

tivert wrote: post #33
tempsy wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because cellphones became ubiquitous and admins never felt empowered to strictly limit them in schools

>> What I am questioning is the why. Why did it stop. Why have the attitudes towards personal technology in schools swung so quickly? >> Phones in schools seem like nothing but a distraction. > because cellphones became ubiquitous and admins never felt empowered to strictly limit them in schools You're missing the point. But there was a time when they weren't ubiquitous and admins did feel empowered to strictly limit…

I remember I could send texts (including selecting the contact) in my pocket without looking at the screen of my Nokia 3310 in high school. So I think the boiling pot analogy holds. Things were already pretty advanced by the time smartphones came along.

And the importance of cell phones to everyone’s lives (even children and teenagers) has massively increased since then. For schools to blanket ban them on campus or on the person of students in class would be swimming against a strong tide indeed. My guess is that the reason they don’t is that they believe that to do so would be constant war. And they aren’t paid enough for that.

Re: Minnesota middle school students 'seem happy' after cellphone ban

#120

Post by drdeca »

riversflow wrote: post #103
ksenzee wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re picturing emergencies at home. They’re picturing an emergency at school.

Neither are common though?

Emergencies generally aren’t, but emergency preparedness can still be worthwhile.

Ok, but yes, I suppose that does suggest that, for personal emergencies, the office won’t be too overloaded with personal emergencies to deal with all of them.

How often would the latency of getting to the office matter? I’m not sure.

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