Technology

Cell Phone bans hold up great until a school shooting happens and no one can call for help... then it's all: "why didn't anyone call for help", "phone bans are dangerous to our kids", "the trans kids are to blame", "bitch bitch bitch transphobic bitching etc etc etc".

And considering it's America... School shootings are basically the Republican legally required National pastime. -- Republicans actually get boners thinking about all the dead kids and they even get extra horny thinking about all the ways they can blame those deaths on LGBTQ+ folk... despite the fact that most school shooters lean towards right wing extremist philosophies... if you can even call pure evil incarnate a philosophy.

I teach middle school in a state with a cell phone ban. We had our first year with the phone ban last year, and I thought it was an improvement.

Phones can be very detrimental to the school experience. For one, it is very difficult to teach kids who are already unwilling or resistant to learning while they have a piece of technology they are literally addicted to in their hand. Secondly, phones and social media contribute to a lot to the bullying, violence, and general misbehavior that occurs at schools.

My school district also provides all students with an iPad, so they have their own school-provided tech. In my experience, this comes with their own problems though. I often feel like I am playing "whack-a-mole" keeping kids off their iPads (playing games, etc.) during instruction. It's nice to be able to incorporate technology into lessons, and it definitely is more convenient for teaching, but I don't think the trade off is worth it. For example, the cheating with A.I. was off the charts for me last year.

This coming school year, I am looking to incorporate more paper and pencil assignments into my teaching. A lot of my students seem to favor assignments where they aren't using their iPads. I think most agree that these kids' eyeballs need a break from the screens.

Also, to people with concerns about the phone ban, students are allowed to bring their phone to school. My state's law states that the phone must be turned off and in the student's backpack during instructional hours. Students may be on their phone at school before and after classes start. In the event of an emergency, no one is going to care if the students get their phone out their bag to call their adult. So, kids will retain access to their phone. In fact, most of the students carry their phones around in the pocket and none of the teachers generally care as long as the student isn't blatantly using their phone during class time. If a kid is caught using their phone during class time, they have to turn it in to the main office for the remainder of the day will escalating consequences for repeat offenses.

Also, I'm sure it varies from teacher to teacher, but I am very understanding when a kid needs to contact a parent/guardian. I will always allow my students to use the phone in my classroom, call a parent from the main office, or use their cell phone in the hall as long as the kid asks permission and explains the situation.

Had a friend in the most expensive private school in my area. They had phones banned over a decade ago already.

Probably because richer parents have more mental bandwidth to worry about children's digital footprint and neural development rather than survival.

Thus I believe extending this ban to public schools is only fair. Distraction-free and surveillance-free environment for children shouldn't be a luxury reserved for few.

Y'all need to go read /r/teachers to learn what a scourge phones in classrooms are. The teachers are begging for an outright ban.

I live and teach in a state that implemented a ban. Results after year one were marginal improvement. Many just did the "hiding" trick more than before. A number didn't think we'd notice them hunched over whispering to their watches. It was rather comical when they would do that.

I mean, are phones conducive to learning? If not then forbid their usage at school and bloody enforce it. I think the fact phones became common place for kids so quickly and so early in their lives coupled with just the general insanity of American schools so often being under attack, the schools have just lost any agency to restrict them given their usage is already rampant.

Imagine a world where teachers weren't geriatric and taught their kids digital literacy instead of digital luddism.

I mean, shit, homework was invented as a fucking punishment and so many studies have shown it has diminishing returns after a certain age. Yet here we are, perpetuating a system designed explicitly for controlling kids - not teaching them.

But yeah, phones are the problem. The internet is the problem. Definitely not how kids are taught to interact with them, no sir. While we're at it, just get rid of PCs at the school - that way the district can save money on their IT department. They can access social media from the PCs so I don't see the problem.

I, too, am generally in favor of virtuously-sounding limitations placed upon demographics I am not a part of and never will be.

My kid is not going to the murder factory without a phone. I'd be happy to scream at someone in a room over it. Guarantee my kid's safety or they're bringing a phone.

Can we just ban them in general? We used to be a proper society and had our phones on the kitchen walls with 25ft cords.

Headline: Americans support a measure that won't fix anything and sounds good on paper