I mean, if they weren’t using their phone during class, does it really matter whether they actually turn the phone in or not? Or were they using the phone in sneaky ways?
I’ll try that. I may have to use the schedule-text functionality, as I usually send texts when I remember to.
ETA: I did find out that this is the first year the high school will have had this policy, sooooooo we’ll see how it goes.
They were using phones during class, or it wouldn’t have been an issue. They can text in a pocket without seeing the screen.
They can?
Back before smart phones, my younger daughter’s best friend claimed to be able to do that. She had a candy-bar style phone and could feel the keys. I was doubtful (and now that I think about it again, I still am), but I’ll admit that if anyone I’ve ever met would be able to do such a thing and be motivated to develop the skill to a useful level, she would be the one.
My tween nephews circa 2005-6 could certainly do this on a numeric keyboard. Where you needed to press “2” once for an “a”, twice in quick succession for a “b”, three times for a “c”
We were amazed how someone who couldn’t spell or do math at grade level could master this skill.
Back then my sister and brother in law were very proud that their sons could evade the ban on cellphone use in class by this genius skill.
Yep. It’s slower, as they’re only using one thumb, but I’ve seen it.
On antique phones with physical keypads, but what about phones used today?
One way is by using Swipe mode on the keyboard. Swipe mode is a way of typing where you press on the first letter of the word and then drag your finger to the other letters of the word. The keyboard figures out the word based on where you pause or change direction. You eventually get the feel of where the keys are on the screen and don’t necessarily need to look at the phone. I don’t text a lot, but I can form some words using Swipe without looking at the keyboard using my thumb. I imagine that teens who text constantly would be very proficient using Swipe mode without needing to look at the keyboard.
Wow!
Report on kiddo’s school, four days in: She has four classes.
Two teachers do it the way we were informed it would work, and there is a big pocket chart (something like this) where the kids put the phones when they enter class, and she says they actually take attendance by checking the phones. (What happens if they don’t have a phone? I asked, and she said they just have to let the teacher know they’re there.) So I guess it isn’t much extra time for the teacher and I guess they also don’t have to take attendance this way?
One teacher (my kid’s favorite) is like, I don’t have time for this nonsense and I won’t collect your phones. If I notice you’re using a phone I’ll dock you class participation points. (I should also say that this teacher teaches an upper-level, reasonably hard class, so the kids are probably more motivated than in a non-upper-level class.)
Her fourth class is cross country, and she says the teacher has never collected phones, but I guess it’s kind of hard to use phones while running? In any event she says she’s never seen anyone use a phone in cross country.
One of her friends had a sub who didn’t know the rule that cell phones had to be collected at the beginning of class, and apparently everyone in the class was on their phone for the entire class.
I’m really glad that she does have a phone, because cross country gets out at times that have ranged from 15 minutes before they were supposed to to 15 minutes after, so she can let us know when she is ready to get picked up.
Anyway, it seems to be going surprisingly well!
It is not. The school has a policy that is being followed, kind of followed, or completely ignored depending on the teacher. Which is how it always goes when a school enacts a blanket policy and then expects teachers to be the enforcers.
What’s the big deal? Maybe nothing for a lot of kids, but arbitrarily enforced rules always seem to come down hardest on kids with the most problems and the fewest support structures advocating for them.
This. For it to work benefiting ALL kids it must be communicated well, then followed consistently, reliably and predictably. Every.Time.Every Class.Every. Teacher.
I see what you’re saying.
What I’m saying is that in the classes where there are no phones, the kids actually do seem to be paying more attention and learning better, so it seems like the trend towards not having phones during class is a good one.
I appreciate your pointing out that there are some kids for whom this uneven execution is unlikely to be okay. I guess in my privileged position as a parent of a kid who is likely to be OK, I would rather my child have two classes where the other kids are engaged because there aren’t any phones out (and in fact she has four) than zero, even if the policy execution is uneven. She also isn’t reporting any issues with implementation (in the logistics sense, or in the sense of kids acting up about it) in her classes where it is being implemented, which I thought might be a concern.
Your kid is a freshman in high school, right?
~Max
Yes.
Another update: it was Back to School night tonight and the principal got the biggest cheers and applause of his entire speech when he mentioned the class cell phone ban. Of course the set of parents who go to Back to School night is self-selecting and isn’t everyone by a long shot, but it seems like a big enough group that at least I feel pretty confident there’s a substantial weight of parents behind admin on this one.
(Now, if we could only get rid of the block schedule…)
Some international comparisons, for interest:
Of course parent’s are supporting it, they don’t have to enforce it.
I have to ask Kid Cheesesteak what their HS policy is this year, today is the first day. I heard something about the locking bags that every kid is supposed to put their phone into, but I only heard it once, they may have dropped the idea without fanfare.
Sure, but that applies to basically every school rule. I also don’t have to enforce dress codes, hallway behavior, homework, attendance/tardiness, extracurricular activities, public displays of affection, etc.
A cell phone ban actually feels like a heavier lift to get approval from parents between “What? The teacher might take the $900 phone I bought my kid??” and “But what if Aunt Myrtle gets ill and I need to let my kid know about it in the middle of their science quiz??” Even in this thread, you had people worrying over what would happen if a catastrophic event happens at school and their kid is without a phone.
One thing I notice: A lot of districts/schools are saying “A lot of districts are banning phones, and therefore we should too”. But nobody is bothering to ask how well it’s actually working, or even what the goal actually is.
My kid’s school was pretty clear about the motivation: Reduce distractions, cheating and bullying as well as potential for explicit photos (of themselves or others) taken in the bathrooms. Some of that is multifaceted such as a student taking a photo of another student over the stall wall to then bully and humiliate them.
At curriculum night the other week, they said it was going well and were optimistic about the policy (which started last spring so they had some experience going into this year) though it’s not as though I pumped them for stats.
I mean, true, but I can testify from painful recent experience (at previous school, not related to cell phones) that there is a huge difference between “school, my kid had some consequences for doing something against the rules and I am behind you all the way and will have a talk with my kid about not doing the thing,” and “school, my kid had some consequences for doing something against the rules and that means the teacher was wrong to accuse my precious child and I demand you take it back!” Not that some parents might not be like that anyway when it’s their precious little snowflake, but it gives me some hope that in general it could be the first and not the second at least where cell phones are concerned – and also that community sentiment would not be on the side of the second parent, which can also be pretty important.
Oh, we had a goal, which I just looked up from the principal’s email message: promoting distraction-free learning environments and “responding to the research” that cell phones/electronics are negatively impacting focus and learning. (There was a link to this article in the message.) As far as I can tell, the “other schools are banning it so we should too” is more for the parents’ sake, so they can normalize in their heads that other schools do it too, so that they won’t object on the grounds that surely no one would do such a weird thing!
Since it’s my kid’s first year at this school, I can’t compare directly (I’ll see if I have a chance to ask parents who have older kids), but it does seem significantly better than at my younger kid’s school last year, where there was effectively no electronics ban and there were major problems with distraction, kids being glued to their phones, etc. Younger kid’s school is also implementing a much more stringent electronics policy this year (though they don’t have the pouches, there is much more of a firm no cell phones in classroom, and actually more limited computer use as well) and it does seem to be going significantly better – kids are more engaged, less distracted, etc.
Anyway, three weeks in, it does seem to be going okay from my older child’s perspective and everyone has settled into the implementation of these pouch charts as the new normal, except that once she left her phone in one of the pouch charts and had to run across campus to collect it, which she was very not happy about.