Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/12/11/france-imposes-total-ban-o.html
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How to prevent that when phones can be smuggled into prisons?
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I really do not have an issue with this.
The elementary and middle schools in our district do not allow cell phones in the classrooms or halls during school hours. Kids have to leave them in lockers.
The high school allows phones to remain on the students, but they cannot use them during a class…only in between classes, study halls, and breaks.
I don’t see the issue.
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Well, as someone who went to secondary school before the age of cell phones, it’s all going to be just fine. Seriously. Put the phones down kids. Live life.
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I’ll be exporting these to France:
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Eh, not seeing the issue here. There are a LOT of things you can’t bring to school for various reasons. Really, there isn’t a NEED for a cell phone at school. Even during off times. You don’t have to keep track of them, because they wouldn’t be brought to school.
I am a bit surprised they were talking about younger kids in schools having phones. I could see a tablet at home if you are 7, but a cell phone?
I would make sure phones are available for kids to call their parents. Other than that, meh.
There is also the “concealed means concealed”, if one stored it in their book bag or locker and took it out only after leaving school, then that removes the distraction and still has the convenience if needed.
Still it is a bit surprising they had to do this at a national level, vs just local school admin.
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It’s totally doable, really.
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France does a lot of things on the national level.
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I understand the issue of teaching proper times for usage of electronic devices. I have a seven year old who has her own tablet and handheld games. I can see trying to teach and enforce respectful use of those devices feeling like a huge distraction to teaching regular lessons.
Do we need additional classes in when and how to use electronic devices in social and educational settings?
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Yes. Oh, hellz yes.
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The issue is that it’s idiotic.
Every single student in the school has a portable supercomputer that gives them instant access to the sum total of all human knowledge. It is the single greatest advancement in knowledge access, knowledge sharing, and knowledge creation ever achieved. Rather than incorporating into the curriculum of every single classroom the use of this tool, and instruction as to that tool’s responsible and most effective use, their response is to ban it.
Any teacher who does not recognize and who is not leveraging the transformative capabilities of a room full of students who already use their pocket supercomputers as their primary knowledge portal is failing as an educator.
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My spouse who is a School Psychologist would say otherwise. While there is room for these devices to be used in the manner in which you are espousing; the reality is most kids are using them to play games and snapchat with one another and it completely detracts from their education not enhances it.
You are assuming that because they have such a powerful tool at their disposal that they are using it in such a manner.
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Students made the same argument about calculators in the 1980s – why should we have to know all this math if we can just use our calculators? But leaning on technology is a terrible way to learn how to solve problems. Sure, once you really understand a problem, you can use the technology, but if you don’t know how to solve them without the technology you have no way of knowing if the answer you get is reasonable or not. Having a smartphone is the same issue only worse because it isn’t just math skills that it affects. Let them have phones and calculators when they are adults, not before.
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Well it is much smaller as a country goes. I guess I would be less surprised if a US state did this, for example
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A computer used for lessons and research is different than a personal phone, mainly used to play games, socialize, and some times call people.
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Instead of Make France Great Again, shouldn’t it be something like “Rendez la France encore géniale”? Asking for my friend Marine.
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And how are the children supposed to be able to reach their parents or make an emergency call between the time they leave the school and the time they return home? Payphones are essentially extinct. Tons of people don’t have landlines. Many parents buy their kids a mobile specifically so they can call if they get lost/in trouble/whatever.
Cell phones aren’t luxuries anymore. They are an essential part of living in the modern world. Children live in the world, they should be allowed to have the tools necessary to survive in it.
Banning mobile devices in the classroom is one thing, and I wouldn’t be against that. But denying schoolchildren the ability to have any access to a phone while they are in school is stupid and wrongheaded, and potentially dangerous. It’s also been tried before, and all it does is lead to a rash of scum-dwelling predatory profit seekers like the phone locker renting services that sprouted up when NYC tried to ban phones from school:
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Kids can’t be convinced to eat brussels sprouts.
Not too concerned with prison wallets.
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Meh. Over rated they are. Schools have phones as they always have.
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Are you playing devils advocate here or seriously don’t know? Schools have land lines. If I need to reach my kid at school, I call the school, and they get my kid. If my kid needs me, the school calls me. There is NOTHING that could go on in school that would warrant her needing to call me on her private cell phone (which she doesn’t currently have, but even if so…) Even if she did have one, there is NO reason for me to directly call it. That would be incredibly rude and distracting. If it is an emergency, I contact the school directly and go from there.
They are luxuries to kids in most settings. They certainly aren’t needed AT SCHOOL. I mean seriously, WTF do you mean “tools necessary to survive in it”? During the day they don’t need them. After school, if one knows a phone is not available, then proper plans can be made in advance. One doesn’t need a pay phone. And we don’t kids more than 10 feet away from ourselves at all times in this day and age anyway.
I have friends who are teachers, and distractions, from phones, to fidget spinners, to BD kids are ruining the experience for other kids. It is hard enough to focus with out a wonder box of funny cat videos and likes distracting you.
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