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 don’t have kids, and when I was in school no one had phones, so I’m way out of the loop, but there were various electronic devices that could be a distraction. Portable music players, handheld games, even a graphing calculator in a non-math or science class, any one of these would have been confiscated if used during class.
I can not think of a single reason a student should have access to a phone during class that can’t be solved another way.
I don’t think the issue is that teachers don’t want to take away the distractions, it’s more that they aren’t given the needed authority any more.
Students have notably less respect for their teachers and will often simply refuse to obey, and physically forcing them is obviously out of the question. Not to mention the absolute shitstorm that breaks over any teacher when one of the students complains at home and so invokes the fury of a helicopter parent.
What I actually like about phones in classrooms is a transparency. Every fuck up like teacher being rude or kids picking fights with each other would be recorded from a couple of angles. 20-30 teens collected together in a small room and feel bored is a recipe for something to happen, especially when teacher is that bad at getting their attention. That’s a highlighted reason why the same law was introduced in my country - to defend teachers from responsibility while they are to indocrinate youth with things even kids don’t find believable and use force if necessary.
If you are into surveillance wouldn’t it be easier to just install cameras everywhere and record everything? Then phone can stay away and locked.
To be clear, I’m not advocating for this, it sounds like a 1984 nightmare. It’s just that you don’t need kids with phones to enact surveillance
As someone with severe ADHD, if I don’t have something to listen to(through headphones obviously) or to mess with in my hands, I can pay attention to about 3 words before I am completely distracted with how the ceiling tiling looks. I get that a lot of students simply don’t pay attention as a result of their phone, but for some of us, it’s the only reason we can pay attention.
Not to mention, ebooks are a thing, and when you’re pirating them you don’t have to worry about overdue fees or your book getting stolen/damaged.
Final point, a lot of my teachers were dogshit, so learning from Wikipedia and other sources was vastly more entertaining and informative than listening to them try to explain addition to that dumbass in the back for the 8th time when he can’t even read
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”?
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.
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’m leaning the other way on this. Give them tasks to do with their phones. Put the phones to work.
Anything that has a student’s attention is a potential route of engagement. Employing that route is infinitely better than banning it.
“Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn’t know the first thing about either.”
-Marshall McLuhan
Smartphones are not purely entertainment machines. They are super connected, extremely portable computers.
You could connect a Bluetooth keyboard to a phone and use it to take notes.
You could ask the class to search the internet for examples or interesting facts.
There are a lot of ways a teacher can utilize students smartphones in a classroom. Ways that might help students understand technology better in a modern world.
Your comment has nothing to do with the quote I’ve provided. Other than you possibly misunderstanding it.
Heh, you’re right. I misunderstood the meaning of why you posted that quote. Maybe you could add your intentions next time as quotes are often misunderstood and misrepresented. I have a similar issue.
What you don’t understand you can make mean anything.
-Chuck Palahniuk, Diary
Maybe reread it?
Idk dude. Google it.
Edit: gotta love the angry downvote. 😂
On the other hand, this is how we know about teachers doing things they absolutely shouldn’t do.
I read books in class. I drew pictures in class. I just looked out the window and daydreamed. Kids aren’t going to pay attention just because you take away their phones.
EDIT: I’m honestly amazed people are against that. Are you not aware that this is why we have videos like this that expose racist teachers?
https://abc7.com/fontana-sequoia-middle-school-teacher-racial-slur/13092208/
Exactly. If a student doesn’t want to pay attention, it won’t.
That doesn’t mean we need to enable it with devices providing things like Instagram, Tiktok, and games that are designed to sap your attention.
I’m bored and could use the downvotes, so here are a bunch more examples of students filming teachers doing things that are unacceptable or just plain illegal in class because they have their phones:
https://www.wdbo.com/news/news/local/student-films-teacher-whipping-students-belt/nmJzW/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/student-teacher-qanon-video-shouting-b1951071.html
https://www.yourtango.com/news/video-math-teacher-mimicking-native-american-culture
https://www.yourtango.com/news/california-teacher-robert-bean-threatening-slam-student-against-wall
Wow, that math one! They did the same thing in my kid’s math class! It was during Covid, so the teacher recorded it himself without a second thought! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!
I hear what you’re saying about recording. But Im not sure phones in class are the answer.
I don’t know what other answer there is to stop teachers getting away with this shit. The racism and sexual harassment I saw on display when I was going to school in Indiana in the 80s and 90s was not a secret. But since it was always the teacher’s word against the kid’s, the teacher always got away with it. The only time I can think of that it didn’t happen was when a very devoted girl and her family in my high school spent a lot of time and money in court suing a teacher who sexually harassed her in middle school. He had his job the whole time (he was finally fired when he lost the case).
Security cameras in classes? They have them on busses.
