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Group of 17 London secondary schools join up to go smartphone-free

theguardian.com

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Re: Group of 17 London secondary schools join up to go smartphone-free

#91

Post by hollerith »

zarzavat wrote: post #49

Confiscating phones from children for an entire week is an unhinged idea. Confiscating for the rest of the school day I can understand, but not giving them the phone back when they go home is dangerous. At some point a child will get abducted on their way home from school, or be unable to contact emergency services, because the school confiscated their phone. They seem to want parents to buy dumb phones instead for t…

The damage done to kids by smartphones greatly exceeds the safety benefits you describe IMHO. Your use of hyperbolic language like "unhinged" suggests you're addicted to your smartphone or at least you're in denial about the damage it did to you.

Re: Group of 17 London secondary schools join up to go smartphone-free

#92

Post by wisemang »

vidarh wrote: post #85
wisemang wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replace with TikTok or Snapchat or whatever they are using. Because they are definitely using social media. Maybe you’re playing gotcha at a poor millenial’s out of date examples but the point stands. Source: parent of high schooler.

+ discord. 90%+ of my sons social media use is private discord servers.

The little familiarity I have with discord makes me think maybe it’s not quite as bad? More like IRC with a more modern interface, and not as much designed to be a total time and attention sink? Would be curious about others’ takes.

I get kids may still spend a lot of time talking to people in there but how different is that from when my sister spent all her free time talking to friends on the phone as a teenager…

Re: Group of 17 London secondary schools join up to go smartphone-free

#93

Post by jasonjei »

I think many of the comments in opposition to this are coming from people that do not have children. Many of those in support do. I speak as a parent of a child, and I think “parent brain” will affect your thoughts on this. Having said that, I grew up on dial up and very low tech HTML. Not social media which is an entirely different beast.

There is a book called The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. NYU Prof. Jonathan Haidt argues that the rise of smartphones and overprotective parenting have led to a "rewiring" of childhood and a rise in mental illness. Suicides for both teenage girls and boys are up.

I’m choosing to send my kids to a school whose parents have also agreed to remove or drastically curb the use of social media. Not eliminate the creative sense of electronic tinkering.

Re: Group of 17 London secondary schools join up to go smartphone-free

#94

Post by vidarh »

My son (15 in London) has moved schools more than I'd like and they've all had smartphone policies that ranged from "must be in your bag", via "must be in your locker", to "must be left at home". None have allowed phones to be out during school hours, or on school grounds, other than in very limited circumstances, generally with prior permission, so I'm more surprised that so many schools, apparently all in Southwark, were this lenient to start with.

The one school my son went to that had a "must be left at home" policy, I think went slightly too far (many students there had a complex travel route, and parents wanted to be able to check in if e.g. they were running late), but at the other ones having them lock it in a locker or hand it in at the door didn't see to be an issue for either the students or parents, nor did many students seem to want to risk detention for taking their phone out of the bag without good reason at the school were that was policy.

Re: Group of 17 London secondary schools join up to go smartphone-free

#95

Post by Retric »

prmoustache wrote: post #86
Retric wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking stuff up during lunch or study hall. School hours != in class but it often means doing assignments.

Lunch is a good time to disconnect. I think teaching kids to having moments where they can just enjoy company and socialize is a good thing. Same reason we have a no screen policy during dinner time at home. Most study hall / libraries have a number of computer terminals.

Most kids on most days do use it to disconnect, but conversely most kids also use it to do an assessment or study for a test at some point.

Re: Group of 17 London secondary schools join up to go smartphone-free

#96

Post by whimsicalism »

prmoustache wrote: post #61
cynicalsecurity wrote: post #41

This is plainly idiotic. Smartphones are great for having useful apps for studying such as dictionaries and translators, they provide access to Wikipedia and means to communicate with other kids. They also make parents feel less stressful knowing they can always call or message their kids. Whoever came up with this idea is a retrograde.

What kind of parent will call or message their kids during school hours? All the ressources mentionned can probably be accessed through other means, usually the school library which has computer terminals.

we should let older high schoolers use phones during the school day. phone vocabulary apps were invaluable for my SAT prep. the library is frankly a laughable substitute

that said, they shouldn’t be allowed in actual class

Re: Group of 17 London secondary schools join up to go smartphone-free

#97

Post by whimsicalism »

rvba wrote: post #36

The cool / mischevious kids will still bring phones to school, while life of the calm kids will be made miserable. Story old as time. Fascinating that people here cant predict it.

you’re downvoted but this was my experience going to a school that “banned” smartphones

Re: Group of 17 London secondary schools join up to go smartphone-free

#98

Post by hnthrowaway0328 »

We are limiting TV time to 30m per day and no pad/phone for our 4 year old kid.

IMO the issue is with the school, not us. Schools will inadvertently introduce pad as a learning device, and his friends will use such devices too. I hope they ban it in Canadian schools too.

Re: Group of 17 London secondary schools join up to go smartphone-free

#99

Post by the_snooze »

jasonjei wrote: post #93

I think many of the comments in opposition to this are coming from people that do not have children. Many of those in support do. I speak as a parent of a child, and I think “parent brain” will affect your thoughts on this. Having said that, I grew up on dial up and very low tech HTML. Not social media which is an entirely different beast. There is a book called The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Child…

I think it comes from the "I tinkered with tech as a kid!" mindset. It ignores the fact that smartphones are about as low-friction and consumption-centric as it gets when it comes to distracting material. If you want kids to learn about tech, then do it in a higher-friction deliberate context like a desktop computer.

Re: Group of 17 London secondary schools join up to go smartphone-free

#100

Post by Symbiote »

Retric wrote: post #65
Symbiote wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lunch time is supposed to be a break from studying. (Study haul? I don't know this term.)

Auto corrupt of study hall, also known as a free period. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Study_hall

That would be very unusual until the final two years of school in England.
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