[snerk]
well, I noticed yer post, even if nobody else did
I don’t know about you, but when I was in school, there was a nice lady in the office who would let you use the phone. That is no longer the case. She may be a nice lady, but the phone (at least in our district) is off limits.
we had this come up in middle school as well. The pay phone was out of order, and the ladies in the office wouldn’t let the kids use the phone. Unfortunately for the ladies, these were kids who had stayed after school for a meeting re the school newspaper–we, the parents did not know when the meeting would end. One of the parents called the school and once she found out that these ladies hadn’t let the kids call home, after school, she raised hell. A letter of apology went out to all. And rightly so.
I am all for class discipline and having rules, but let them be sensible ones. Confiscate phones if they’re used in class-don’t ban them altogether…(I am speaking of HS here, sorry). As for elementary school, there is still a nice lady who will call home if needed. That doesn’t change until middle school.
Simple-ish solution - EMF jammers in all classrooms. Keep your cellphone on all you want - it ain’t gonna work. You can pick up your critical messages after class is over. I can totally understand why schools would ban cellphones - if my life depended on getting a bunch of kids to reliably turn their cellphones off in class, I’d be dead a million times over.
Cellphones did not magically show up this year. Most if not all schools have had rules against in class use for years. The schools that are going further with it are the ones who realized that their rules were being broken everyday and class was still being disrupted. I have no problem with someone bringing a phone to school as long as it’s not used in class but I can understand the problems these teachers are having.
That would make a great solution, except for the fact that it would be illegal in the US.
Many of the bans are from back in the day when having a cell phone was associated with being a drug dealer. In some cases the very mothers pushing for the ban then are pushing for its removal now that cell phones are more mainstream.
When I was going through school, it amused me greatly how often the teachers halted mid-lesson to re-focus everyone’s attention on some previously unobserved student who was “disrupting class” by quietly playing a game on their calculator or what-have-you.
I couldn’t care less if the kids who don’t want to pay attention aren’t paying attention so-long-as whatever they’re doing isn’t interfering with the kids who are paying attention. Teachers, save the disruptive reprimands until a natural pause in the lesson or the end of class. Or make your lessons interesting enough to engage the students.
And that’s my opinion before taking into account that a cellphone, beyond being a technological doodad, actually serves a useful function.
The reason they’re getting banned in schools isn’t because of the distraction in the classroom. That problem is easily fixed.
The problem is that when a fight breaks out, instead of a couple of dozen spectators the entire student body shows up and you quickly have a melee. It’s a very real, very scary situation.
It’s similar to the problem most communities today have with teen parties. When a party starts to heat up, word gets around within minutes and everyone in town shows up, invited or not. You can’t stop it.
As a former elementary and middle school teacher, I am absolutely in favor of a ban on cellphones. There is no logical reason why a student needs one during the school day. Now, would I ever search student lockers or bags for a cell phone? No. So the answer is, if you’re a smart, discreet kid, and you have a reason for a phone, you can probably get away with it. If you are absent-minded and forgetful - which would make you like 90 percent of kids - you don’t need it.
Here’s a secret for every parent in the world here: teachers and administrators would just rather not deal with a lot of the stuff that comes with having rules. We’re usually more than happy to not dig to find infractions, unless your kid is being a jerk or we’re concerned about safety. If your kid is mature enough to know that the phone is something he does not share with his friends, or show off, and can turn it off during the day and keep it in his/her locker, I can guarantee that nobody is going to go out of their way to “bust” him or her. I certainly couldn’t have done this as a child - I would blab to all my friends after school. Then another kid would bring a cooler phone, and so on, and so on. Then the administrators have a new problem on their hands - and why I see the logic of a ban.
I’ve even re-thought my position on the kid whose mom was in Iraq and called him at lunch at school. As an administrator, I would have the kid discreetly drop off his phone in the morning, and he would be able to use it in the office during his lunch period. He shouldn’t have it in the school at any time, regardless.
Because you’ll have it in class one day and it will ring. Or some other kid will find out you have a phone and steal it. The list goes on… Managing the instructional day is hard enough. Teachers and administrators really don’t need to deal with other issues.
HS kids can make a case for needing a phone (jobs, driving, being responsible for sibs, etc.). I don’t like it, but the case can be made, and there’s the issue of being near adults.
You need better laws.
There are reasons beyond classroom distractions:
[ul]
[/ul] [ul]
[li]picture phones in the locker rooms or bathrooms[/li][li]photographing tests (big concern for SAT, AP, and state testing)[/li][li]cheating via texting[/li][li]having friends call in fake emergencies[/li][li]constant theft, which can lead to a lot of lost class time if a kid discovers at the beginning of class something is missing[/li][/ul] All of these have happened at my school. The last one actually happened today!
Debate if the kids need phone or not; I’m not touching that. But don’t assume it’s some control issue or just a disruption issue.
I thought the phone companies came up with a solution for this. A no-frills phone (i.e. no camera, text messaging, etc.) that parents could program to only accept calls from certain numbers and make calls to certain numbers.
Did these not catch on?
I know it defeats the purpose of having a phone in the first place in a kids mind (can’t call and text my friends) but it does solve the legitimate purpose of having it for emergencies.
Or did kids balk at these and decide if they can’t carry a “real” phone they don’t want to carry one at all and parents caved to their wishes.
Dude, do you really want to start down this road? How did people manage to survive before regular phones existed?
:rolleyes:
eleanorigby, you have got to be shitting me. They won’t even take messages for emergencies? What kind of fucked up shit is that? What if the KID gets hurt, or something-he can’t call home?
And if kids are using them during class, well, how is that any different from someone passing notes to his or her friends, or sneaking a comic book inside the textbook?
Mind you, I don’t think elementary school-aged kids actually NEED cell phones. But for certain situations-say, a family member is in the hospital-let the kid have one temporarily, just in case.
Well, if there is an emergency, the school nurse or dean would call me (or my husband).
I understand the reasons for not allowing their use in class and in locker rooms, but there are times when my older kids need to get some info from me. The office will not do that (“we have almost 3000 students here, Ms Rigby, we cannot provide that service” was what I was told. That was for the eye doctor appt–an appt that is hard to get and one required by the school! The death of my sister, their aunt, was my choice–I couldn’t stand the thought of some stranger knowing that news before my kids did. Not real rational, perhaps, but I wasn’t real rational at that time.)
My elementary school son-I can just go to the office and ask that he be taken out of class. It’s harder with two building and a large campus in HS. Both of my kids switch back and forth between buildings throughout the day, so knowing which builiding either of them is in on any particular day (they have regular days and block days etc) is not easy.
There is no need for a student to have a cell phone in the classroom. IF and this is a big if, IF the school has a reasonable policy about emergency communications. I fought this one with my son’s school, and sort of won sort of lost. I successfully argued that since my wife is legally blind, and very ill at the time, and my son (a senior at the time, 18 years old) was the nearest next of kin (proximity wise, I would be at work 30 miles away). and the school would not interupt a class to give a message to a student, it would be up to him to see that Mrs Seenidog was not alone during time of crisis. I could be on the phone and make decicions, but he would be the only one to hold her hand and say “I am here”.
I sort of won that one, they agreed he could have a cell phone, but only non audible ring.
The crisis never happened, Mrs Seenidog found her way out of the woods medically speaking.
Thank Og.
I sort of lost because the powers that be then used the “hypothetical crisis” never occurring as a justification to ban cellphones. Personally, I think they should be barred from the classroom, leave them them in the car or locker, no need in the classroom. Just make reasonable emergency communications between parent and student possible. Not so tough a task, except for the educated idiots we call school administrators.
Of course by the time that happened, my son graduated and I don’t really have a horse in this reace anymore.
Amen!
I’m a teacher who’s worked for two different school districts with two different policies about cell phones.
– The first allowed them into the school, but they were to remain off during class times. (Right. :rolleyes: ) Those phones were constantly on, getting text messages, calls, and with designer ringtones, they could play their favorite song clip ad nauseum, usually doing so to annoy their “favorite” teacher. And it was like pulling hen’s teeth to figure out which urchin had it. If you were fortunate enough to seize the phone, the administration did a minimal effort in having the parent come to the school to get the phone. They usually gave it back to the kid and told them, “Now, don’t you do this again.” :rolleyes:
I gave zeroes to any student that had a phone out during a test or quiz. Sure, they said they weren’t discussing the test with their cousin/SO/sibling/parent. But there’s no way of telling, so it was an automatic zero. One kid even was working on making up 3 quizzes during an extra long period. He pulled his phone out and starting talking because it was so @!#?@! automatic. I came by his desk and wrote 3 zeroes on the three quizzes. TBSS.
I even had a parent call their child during class. I told the girl to put the phone away, and she said, “But it’s my mother,” then, “Would you like to talk to her?” So I took the phone, told the mother that calling in the middle of class was very disruptive, and that she’d have to come to the school to retrieve the phone. 
– The second has a no-phone policy. You see a phone, you seize a phone, you give it to an administrator. If the kid gives you grief, call for the administrator immediately, and they’ll take the kid out of class, get the phone, and call the parent. There is no disruption in class, except for the 3 times that I’ve seized phones this whole school year. Much better, believe me!
Another example of why cell phones are bad in schools: there’s more to them than just telephony. Text messaging (for cheating), music (disruptive), and cameras. Just this week, there was a fist fight that broke out in my hallway (symptom of the week before spring break). While I went to my room to call for security and/or administrator, another couple of teachers noticed a third party with his cell phone out videoing the fight. When they reviewed the video (for evidence of who started the fight), they noticed that the cameraman started filming for several seconds before anything happened; i.e., he knew it was coming. :eek: I’ve also heard of “hidden camera” videos of the girls locker rooms.
In reality, there is no reason that direct contact is necessary with your child during the school day. A reasonable school will contact the student in an unobtrusive way. We had a student this week that was called directly by his aunt, telling him that his mother (non-custodial) had just suddenly died. So right in the middle of class, this poor kid freaks out. She should’ve called the school office, had him calmly taken out of class, and informed in the presence of the school counsilor (sp?).
Heck, I even hate having my phone at school. I turn it on vibrate most days to see if my wife needs me. I usually get back to her during planning or lunch. It’d be preferrable just to check my e-mail on break instead of my students noticing that I’m getting a call.
P.S. - Just as Arizona Teach mentioned, phones can be stolen and reprogrammed for another number.
This goes for any other type of electronics: CD players, iPods, cameras: leave them at home. If any of these is stolen, the kid is distracted the whole rest of the day instead of being on-task in class.
Exactly how many times did you have to call for a ride home? That’s one Christ of a lot of quarters and days of confusing plans if it added up to more than four bucks over the course of a school year.
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They get stolen, a LOT. We have a no cell phone policy, and a no iPod policy, yet they still get brought in, and they get ripped off. Sometimes the police get involved. Is it worth it for the school to have to deal with that?
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The kids text each other during class, sometimes answers to test, even state tests. This is obviously a big problem for teachers and administrators, and there has to be some recourse if a kid has one. Thus, zero tolerance.
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They really aren’t necessary in a school where kids can use the phone to call home. Most schools have a way for kids to reach their parents during the day if they need to, anecdotes in this thread notwithstanding. They are a liability, a distraction, and a vector for all sorts of dishonesty and bad behavior.
All that said, if a kid is discrete, keeps his off in his locker during the day, and only uses it when he really needs it, no one will say anything to him. But if he gets caught using it, then he was stupid about it and he gets what’s coming to him.
Usually to make a compelling argument you shouldn’t put up a completely plausible resolution to a supposedly impossible problem. The cell phone plague has retarded america’s youth.
This is exactly what we did when I was in school and I have not been out of school that long (seriously). If someone was using the phone, you’d wait in line to use the phone. It’s not like someone’s having a half hour conversation with the person on the other end - they’re saying ‘hello, please come pick me up.’
No one needs a cell phone, especially teenagers. You’re suckers to a series of extremely successful marketing campaigns making you pay monthly for an incredibly unlikely what-if scenario. The device doesn’t even make calls as effectively as it plays music and video.