Parents Don't Like Phones At Schools

[Crunchy Dragon]

14 hours ago, Beskamir said:

As for my example of using phones to check something during a lesson, I'm not at all suggesting kids should be afraid to ask questions. I was more thinking along the lines of questions that can be easily googled, difficult for the teacher to know off the top of their head, likely not super relevant to the topic the class is covering, yet something the kid might consider or think off because of the lesson.

I did this kind of stuff all the time. Generally in classes where there was a lot of discussion, like political science, a couple writing classes, and public speaking.

 

If I heard something that triggered my memory, I'd pull out my phone, look it up, and have the ability to add or bring something meaningful to the discussion at hand. I was also guilty of fact-checking my classmates from time to time, but I tried not to be a jerk about making sure they got their facts right.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Texas Instruments Calculators are quite the ripoff nowadays. A smartphone can be had for as low as $25 new. Granted, it's slow, but dual 1.2 GHz Cortex A7s >>>>> Z80/ARM9 derivative (FYI, the ARM9 was the main cpu for the Nintendo DS). Not to mention even the lowly 480P display still outstrips the 320P display in the TI.

 

While I understand that a calculator doesn't need more than an ARM9 anyway, there is absolutely no (technical) reason that a TI graphing calculator should cost more than $30 tops.

 

Can you play DOOM on a smartphone in a test? I don't think so. 

[Tsuki]

kids need phones. it makes getting ahold of them, and making plans a lot easier.

kids do not need smartphones. why does your 9yr old have an $800 phone?  they dont need access to the internet and gaming at all hours during the day.

if they want to ban phones in school, start by properly parenting your kids and give them a flip phone instead

[kokakolia]

3 hours ago, lewdicrous said:

That's the problem, shitty teachers have a "pass or fail, I still get paid" kinda mentality and that's just unacceptable; they're responsible for educating their students and they should be held accountable for their shortcomings as a teacher.

Of course, a number of teachers are still gonna act that way cause nothing will negatively affect their career as you mentioned, and well, who's gonna believe the students if they complain? Speaking from experience, the student is going to be blamed for the teacher's ineptitude. 

Man! You just described my entire University experience! I got many lousy instructors. The lectures were boring AF and held into huge auditoriums. You could barely see the board. I had to basically teach everything myself from the textbook. The atmosphere was clearly "sink or swim" and if your instructor sucked it was because they had more important things to do than teach, like research. I passed with moderate grades and got my degree, but to this day I'm still wondering if I actually learned the right things and if I understood the material. And this was one of the top-rated universities in Canada BTW. 

 

My point is, if you want the kids to go to University then bad instructors and boring classes in school will prepare them. They will slowly learn how extract knowledge from a textbook/YouTube/other students to pass an exam. 

 

Re: phones in schools.

 

They don't belong in schools. They create a distraction. If you stare at your phone for while, your brain is kinda slow and unfocused for tens of minutes. It's so obvious, but nobody really talks about that. Kids will be peer-pressured into owning phones. Phones are basically a social media vessel and that's toxic stuff. Every person needs to learn essential social skills before entering the workforce. Life in the office as an adult doesn't differ much from highschool. IMHO, I had good memories of being bored in a hallway between classes and sparking up dumb pointless conversations, or playing UNO. These days people just stare at their phones. It's like they're not emotionally "there". 

[jiyeon]

I'm not a parent and likely will never be one but I remember back in my days in high school and a brief period in my latter final months of primary school, we had pretty free will to take phones into classes at our own discretion as long as they weren't distracting in any way, else teacher would confiscate it for the rest of the day, classic punishment back then.

The usage of phones in school, at least when I was still in high school back in 2017, later years of high school were much more casual to students using phones for things like calculators and quick Google searches. I think the teachers in high school knew what we teens acted like and so gave us free will to accodomate us to give us the most comfortable learning environment we can get as 2017 high school was certainly a year in the age of technology in classrooms.

 

I'm a bit too old to have experienced phones in primary school for a good amount of time to make a valid statement, but I feel like letting kids under say 13 have a phone and allow them to bring them into classrooms will cause distractions due how impressionable younger kids can be, especially with the pull of social media like Facebook and Snapchat.

I remember back in primary school, for those of the students that brought phones in, had to keep it inside the collective phone box and were allowed to collect their own phone at the end of the class. It made for situations like if anybody had an emergency call easier to handle.

[williamcll]

Only give the basic phones to the kids.

[Andreas Lilja]

Even at the University level it's hard when you have a digital distraction, especially when the lecturer clearly has no lecturing abilities, which happens... often.

[Derrk]

14 hours ago, Sauron said:

That would just end in an endless fight over the definition of "irresponsible" use, not to mention it would be impossible for teachers to tell if the kid is looking up a wikipedia page or just their facebook feed.

i get what you're saying, but my thinking was more along the lines discussing if students should be allowed to bring their phones to school at all. To what you said, it should be up to individual teachers to decide whether or not students can use their phones during their classes. When i was in middle/high school most of us had phones, but it was before the smart phones era. If a teacher caught us with our phones out, it would lead to a detention.

 

Nowadays, itt can be a useful tool to look things up. I've had professors in university ask the classroom to look things up for them. But ultimately, its up to the teacher to determine if students can use their phones during class.

 

I may have misinterpreted the thread, but my main input into the discussion is that you can't ban kids from bringing their phones to school altogether, since it's an important way for students to communicate with their caregivers 

[Brooksie359]

Growing up my school always banned the use of phones while on class but you could do whatever outside of class. They did allow the use of them in class when given permission by the teacher though. I think this was a very simple and straightforward solution to this problem. Banning them completely is absolutely out of the question because not having a phone to contact people is a problem. I dont think there was a day that I didn't use my phone after school to call either my parents or my siblings for transportation reasons or other reasons. 

[AkatsukiKun]

Parents don't like phones at schools? I don't like parents at schools so yeah..

 

But the last time phones were a concern was more in elementary school really, 40% of my class were using BBM back in ~2011, by the time I hit high school I had a sliding phone with a QWERTY keyboard, and at that point using your phone in class wasn't really a problem, unless you were cheating on a test/exam. Personally I was reading books and articles on my phone during high school.

[The King of the Undead]

I am 14 with the firm belief that parents fail children by buying them really anything not needed to survive and exit the house. cloths food water etc... I am ok with letting them use your stuff but make sure they know it is yours and put limits.

[Jito463]

On 9/1/2019 at 8:29 AM, Trik'Stari said:

Idea: A flip phone that can be set to only send and receive calls and texts from family members, during certain hours.

 

So while you're at school, your phone can only send and receive calls from family members. Before or after school, it acts like a normal flip phone.

 

I say flip phone because even in my day cell phones were bad enough, giving your kid a smart phone is just a terrible idea in my opinion.

I don't have any kids (and likely never will, at this stage of my life); but if I did, I'd probably only let them have a phone that could dial preset numbers.  Something along these lines (mind you, this article is from 2005, but the principle is the same): 

 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/122316/article.html

On 8/31/2019 at 11:29 PM, Rune said:

I didn't get a flip phone until I was 18 and I bought it myself.

I had to buy my first cell phone, as well.  I never had one while in school.

On 9/1/2019 at 9:39 AM, Sauron said:

Sounds like a certain country needs to invest more in public education.

I'd rather we allowed more private education, instead of relying on government run indoctrination....err, education centers.

[Chett_Manly]

Here is what you do. Ban cell phones from class rooms. They can still have one at school, it just cannot be brought into a class room. Therefore the learning periods of the day cannot be interrupted by it, yet the student still has a means of communication to take on the way to and from school, and utilize during recess/lunch/free period. 

 

If a student takes a phone into a class room, and is caught, the teacher confiscates it. Minor offenses, and where the teacher believes it was accidental, its given back at end of class. Greater Offenses, and the teacher knows its deliberate, its given to the administration to be held until a parent comes to retrieve it.

[Blademaster91]

On 9/1/2019 at 2:30 PM, kokakolia said:

They don't belong in schools. They create a distraction. If you stare at your phone for while, your brain is kinda slow and unfocused for tens of minutes. It's so obvious, but nobody really talks about that. Kids will be peer-pressured into owning phones. Phones are basically a social media vessel and that's toxic stuff. Every person needs to learn essential social skills before entering the workforce. Life in the office as an adult doesn't differ much from highschool. IMHO, I had good memories of being bored in a hallway between classes and sparking up dumb pointless conversations, or playing UNO. These days people just stare at their phones. It's like they're not emotionally "there". 

I agree phones don't belong in school, except for if kids need to keep contact with parents, then it could be kept in a backpack or locker. It was bad enough with flip phones or phones with the built in keyboard, so many were texting in class instead of paying attention. And yeah, not just peer-pressured into owning a phone, kids are going to be teased by the ones that got a $1000 phone from their parents.

If kids can just pick up their phone and browse memes during class, then they aren't going to be successful later in a job because they aren't going to be taught to stay off the phone and actually work.

[ARikozuM]

My school had very few issues with phones. Policy was that the phone had to stay in your locker on silent or powered off. Anyone that was caught with a phone three times was told to leave class and head to the disciplinarian's office and a week's lunch detention.

[Trik'Stari]

1 hour ago, Jito463 said:

I don't have any kids (and likely never will, at this stage of my life); but if I did, I'd probably only let them have a phone that could dial preset numbers.  Something along these lines (mind you, this article is from 2005, but the principle is the same): 

 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/122316/article.html

I had to buy my first cell phone, as well.  I never had one while in school.

I'd rather we allowed more private education, instead of relying on government run indoctrination....err, education centers.

NYC is a fantastic example of how private education is FAR better than public education.

 

I know one thing, my children, if I ever have any, will be privately educated. I work in a job that sees me go into schools fairly regularly and they are flat out indoctrination centers. You see nothing but crab mentality in those places.

[ARikozuM]

3 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

NYC is a fantastic example of how private education is FAR better than public education.

 

I know one thing, my children, if I ever have any, will be privately educated. I work in a job that sees me go into schools fairly regularly and they are flat out indoctrination centers. You see nothing but crab mentality in those places.

The issue is that defunding campaigns have been put into the public schools while for-profit charters are given public funds. It's a big no-no. Tax subsidies should never be given to private corps, only to public institutions or directly to the citizens. 

[Trik'Stari]

23 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

The issue is that defunding campaigns have been put into the public schools while for-profit charters are given public funds. It's a big no-no. Tax subsidies should never be given to private corps, only to public institutions or directly to the citizens. 

Or, hear me out, we just cut taxes and let people spend the money they worked so hard for.

 

Maybe offer private citizens a tax deduction for paying directly for their childrens education, rather than taking their money and hoping that it's spent well.

 

I can tell you, as someone working in IT related to public schools, it is not spent well. Not. At. ALL. These people are morons.

[Inversion]

I feel like the way my school handled phones was pretty good. They were allowed on the premesis. As the school was for a large catchment area, with most people having to get the bus home (which could be late or they could miss), being able to phone parents or older siblings for help was a good thing.

 

Phones were banned in classes for the most part which I also think is good. They were only allowed to be used at the teacher's discretion (some teachers would allow pupils to listen to music with headphones if they were working through problems.

 

I do find it interesting that most people tend to have a newer phone than their parents. I didn't until I went to uni when I got a Galaxy S8. My mum got an S9 at the same time (the battery in her S6 was gubbed) but my dad still has an S7 (which he could replace now the contract is up but he doesn't need a more powerful phone and the battery is fine).

 

That point about my parents is of course the difference. OP said he'd rather have a newer phone than his kid. You're posting on a tech forum so that would make sense. You are interested in and value technology. My parents aren't super techy, like they can use it but generally if it comes time to replace a phone, they ask me for advice on it. For a lot of people who are of the age of having kids. Smartphones are a novelty, something they lived without in the past and not a necessity to have the latest and greatest.

 

As for banning them in school. I don't think they should be banned in high school. Primary school, yes. There's no need and primary schools are small enough that it's not a massive inconvenience for staff to phone parents. In high school though, there are too many people for it not to disrupt the office staff so kids should be able to contact their parents.

[Jito463]

4 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

Tax subsidies should never be given to private corps

On that, I'm in complete agreement.  A for-profit company should never be given tax money from the citizenry.  Period.

 

If they can't exist without government funding, then they simply shouldn't exist (and that goes for colleges, as well).

4 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

only to public institutions or directly to the citizens.

For my response, I'll simply state that I agree wholeheartedly with @Trik'Stari.

[Brooksie359]

4 hours ago, Trik'Stari said:

NYC is a fantastic example of how private education is FAR better than public education.

 

I know one thing, my children, if I ever have any, will be privately educated. I work in a job that sees me go into schools fairly regularly and they are flat out indoctrination centers. You see nothing but crab mentality in those places.

I went to a private school until I was in third grade and it was actually pretty crap. My public school was great and I wouldn't pick a private school over it any day of the week. Granted my school was ranked number 1 in my state for standardized test scores almost every year. Some years we got second but you get the point. 

[ARikozuM]

2 hours ago, Jito463 said:

For my response, I'll simply state that I agree wholeheartedly with @Trik'Stari.

It's all about how you want your taxes used. A small business might use the funds to sustain themselves if they belong to the community. Charter schools usually belong to a larger group, and should be cut off from any funding. Public institutions should be the only thing funded by the public funds. Otherwise, just cut the taxes. 

Spoiler

Or what I would do is give a bonus from extra investments every year like Alaska does.

 

[Trik'Stari]

6 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

It's all about how you want your taxes used. A small business might use the funds to sustain themselves if they belong to the community. Charter schools usually belong to a larger group, and should be cut off from any funding. Public institutions should be the only thing funded by the public funds. Otherwise, just cut the taxes. 

  Reveal hidden contents

Or what I would do is give a bonus from extra investments every year like Alaska does.

 

That's essentially what I am saying.

 

If a parent pays for their child to go to a charter school, they should not also have to pay for the public schools as well (via taxes). I am not saying private schools should be funded by the government.

 

I also agree with defunding all colleges. At the very least, restricting federal student loans to STEM fields as well as the trades.

 

It makes zero sense for the public to lend money, so someone can get a worthless degree that guarantees that person will never be able to pay the loan back.

[Donut417]

37 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

If a parent pays for their child to go to a charter school, they should not also have to pay for the public schools as well (via taxes). I am not saying private schools should be funded by the government.

 

They have no way to separating that out. It just like here in Michigan schools being school of choice. Meaning you dont have to live within the districts borders to go to that school. BUT the school is only funded by tax payers of that district. 

 

39 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

also agree with defunding all colleges. At the very least, restricting federal student loans to STEM fields as well as the trades.

The reason student loans are out of control is because tuition is out of control. The reason tuition is out of control is because, by them being "Federal" loans they are guaranteed. Schools are just trying to take all the money from the government they can. If Federal loans didnt exist, then tuition would most likely be more affordable. I think restricting to STEM fields is not the answer. Each state is different in its needs. For example we have shit tons of skilled trades jobs and related jobs open here in Michigan with no one to fill them. 

 

As far as phones in school go. To me its a matter of safety. We have mass shootings in the US every other week. Some times those happen at schools. Would like it if the students could call for help. Its sad that I have to think this way, but we now have bullet proof back packs. WTF. Now in the UK on the other hand, I dont think they have these types of problems. But Id say as long as the students are not using them during class, then let them have the phones. If they are using them during class then take them and give it to them at the end of the day. 

 

 

[Inversion]

~Accidental multi post~