In California, a high school teacher complains that students watch Netflix on their phones during class. In Maryland, a chemistry teacher says students use gambling apps to place bets during the school day.
Around the country, educators say students routinely send Snapchat messages in class, listen to music and shop online, among countless other examples of how smartphones distract from teaching and learning.
The hold that phones have on adolescents in America today is well-documented, but teachers say parents are often not aware to what extent students use them inside the classroom. And increasingly, educators and experts are speaking with one voice on the question of how to handle it: Ban phones during classes.
I may be a creaking ancient, but is the policy not “get in trouble if your phone is seen in class, or even taken away”?
It used to be, but nowadays it seems that students don’t really give a shit. They’ll downright just refuse to do what a teacher/other figure of authority will ask/tell them to do.
Yeah, so problem isn’t phones. Problem is that teachers don’t have enough authority. If teachers cannot take away the phone, then just toss them out.
I feel like this “ban phones” is getting common but it does not fix the actual problem of teachers not being able to keep discipline in class.
Can’t they just be asked to leave class if they refuse to cooperate or have some other kind of sanction imposed such as a complaint to the parents or a deduction in the grade?
The problem is parents arguing that they want their kids to have them at all times. Then they call and text their kids all day during school. I even had a football coach call one of my students during class.
The culture of instant communication at all times is really killing our kids’ education. Parents just need to back the fuck off.
I hate to even say this but now in America you can go straight for the top shelf drama and say your kid needs a phone in case of a school shooting.
What good does that do when the parents go pick it up that day and give it to the kid? It’s the parents not following through with the punishment and cutting the authority of the school off at the knees.
If you do that as a teacher, not only will you be getting pushback from that student and others, but also said student’s parents.
When I was a kid, you respected teachers and if you didn’t, you got punished at school AND at home. These days parents are rude assholes too, and god forbid you try and correct their precious snowflake’s shitty behaviour.
And bans only really work if the school management has your back and make it a schoolwide ban. Otherwise it’s simply not worth the fight.
“When you were a kid…” No they fucking did not. Some kids have always been little shits and some “parents” only qualifications were functional gonads. It’s always been that way and always will.
Your memory is fading so you don’t remember.
https://news.ucsb.edu/2019/019669/kids-these-days
Just like many other distractions before them, phones take kids attention away from school activities. Kids have always looked to avoid classwork. Pre-cell phones, teachers were collecting comic books, different popular toys, friendship bracelets etc… it’s just the lastest issue on constant battle: Teachers try to get kids to learn, kids do everything they can to avoid it.
Most schools around here have implemented a no phone policy during class. If the phone is out, it’s sent to the office for them to collect at the end of the day.
Because of this policy, in my kids middle school some very talented kids are creatively bypassing school controls on their Chromebooks to play games. It’s an ongoing battle between a loosely organized group of 50 kids and the schools IT department. By my count the IT has squashed 9 different versions each more sophisticated than the last. The kids are hands down winning right now with a truly elegant and devious solution.
If you don’t remember the fact that kids were more respectful 25 years ago or so, you’re probably less than 25 years old. The shit teachers deal with today simply did not happen back then.
Didn’t happen at your school, maybe. I grew up in public school in the hood. There were maybe 15 kids in the student body, myself included, that were there to learn anything. Everyone else was causing fights or stealing shit or just trying to be funny all the time.
It used to be, but then the parents get involved and have a hissy fit. They say f it, I don’t get paid enough for this extra stress.