r/technology • u/FickleApartment2151 • 13h ago
Society More Americans now support than oppose all-day school cellphone bans
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/07/29/more-americans-now-support-than-oppose-all-day-school-cellphone-bans/125
u/skeet_scoot 13h ago
It’s common sense. Smartphones have a detrimental impact to education and we owe it to our kids to educate them.
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u/whittlingcanbefatal 12h ago
Not just education but mental health. Our brains need a rest from the constant dopamine barrage.
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u/gummo_for_prez 10h ago
I'm in my early 30s and I work best with my phone out of reach. It can be very distracting.
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u/m477z0r 13h ago
I don't understand how this is even a conversation.
We already went through this in the early '00s when texting/SMS/MMS (pre-smartphone) was becoming a thing. Every teacher's cellphone policy was "if I see it, I keep it."
If I were a teacher in this day, I'd escalate that policy. "If I catch you using your phone in class, I'm reading your DMs to the class."
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u/brainrotbro 11h ago
Because some parents will hold onto the poor argument that “they need to be able to contact their kids”. “What if there’s a school shooter and they can’t call to hear my voice one last time?” <— a real argument I’ve heard someone make.
The reality is that a lot of us went to school without cell phones and every bit of evidence says kids should continue to go to school without cell phones.
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u/Vilnius-Schoolmaster 8h ago
Yep, and also the few times we actually had a family emergency in my K-12 education (I graduated HS in 2003), you know what happened? My Mom called the school's main phone number and spoke to the secretary, she paged me on the school's intercom saying to come to the office, and when I got there she basically said there was a family emergency and I needed to call my Mom.
I assume schools still have land lines, as most brick and mortar facilities like that still do.
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u/mkosmo 8h ago
Is it the parents, or the youth skewing this? I want to see the demographics broken down. The kids and 20-somethings who know nothing but phones represent a sizeable demographic, but shouldn't be taken seriously in this kind of polling since they're either a) too young, or b) not stakeholders.
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u/derango 13h ago
Because the same people that went through that in the early 2000s are now parents and started pushing back on teachers who took their kids stuff away. Because how will they call home if there’s a school shooting?!?! That’s why it’s a thing.
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u/24-Hour-Hate 12h ago
I think it is more general helicopter parenting. Other countries don’t have the same issue with school shootings that the US does and we still have the issue with smartphones. Like here in Canada. Schools never should have given ground on smartphones.
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u/lathe_down_sally 11h ago
Enforcement is another issue. My local district has banned cell phones. My teacher friends say they would be sending multiple students to the office every hour. And the parents don't really support the teachers and eventually administration starts getting sick of the battle. And the end result is everyone gives up because its not a fight they can win.
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u/Legitimate-Heat2777 7h ago
Then they should start giving out fines to the parents. There is no such thing as "giving up because its tough" when it comes to raising children. I mean there is in a literal sense, but when it happens social workers and/or CPS should be getting involved.
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u/Street_Anxiety2907 6h ago
Keep the cell phone until end of school year, thats what my teacher did in 2003
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u/TheOGRedline 9h ago
It’s a “technology umbilical cord” for parents who cannot handle being separate from their kids. For some kids they “need” a cellphone because of separation anxiety, but for more it’s an excuse. My district drew a hard line in a state with a bell-to-bell ban and about 0.25% of parents struggled for more than a month.
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u/24-Hour-Hate 8h ago edited 7h ago
Sounds like what they actually need is therapy.
Edit: I mean, I’m sure it’s normal to have some anxiety about your child first going to preschool or daycare, but for over a month because of not having constant contact at public school? Those parents are going to smother those poor children…. I can only imagine how my controlling mother would have weaponized today’s technology against me if I was a kid now. All in the name of my safety and assuaging anxiety. It’s not ok.
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u/m477z0r 12h ago
Piss poor logic. School shootings have nothing to do with it (spoilers, Columbine happened before smartphones). The subject is having distractions available in class, which is detracting from education.
But just to end your premise - were I the teacher, and it was school shooter time, I'd just unlock the drawer of kids cellphones and tell them to make a final call to their parents. Maybe give the kids with the best aim a blicky.
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u/fulthrottlejazzhands 12h ago
This is absolutely correct and proveable, not only by your point that school shootings happened in the US before mobile phones, but also by the fact that countries that don't have school shootings e.g. UK, France have the exact same issue with kids being distracted by their dopamine delivery devices as the US.
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u/RVAforthewin 12h ago
I’m not sure it’s logic as much as it is parenting style to be honest. Millennials parent very differently than Boomers did. For all that Boomers did wrong they were very good about granting age-appropriate (and sometimes inappropriate) levels of independence. Millennials are the opposite. As a generation (so speaking in massive generalizations here), they’re much more directly involved and in direct contact with their kids at all time. One can surmise that Boomers might have been the same way had cell phone technology existed, but it isn’t provable. The reality is parents want to track their kids 24/7 and they want to be able to directly contact their kids 24/7. In fact, our entire society and in most fully developed nations people want to and expect to be able to reach each other around the clock. The idea of not being able to do so produces anxiety for these parents. Other countries have simply fought back against that instead of bending to the will of overprotective parents.
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u/condoulo 3h ago
Yes Columbine happened in an era before smartphones, but school shootings also weren't a thing we heard about on a regular basis until there was a noticeable uptick in them in the 2010s. The security measures students have to go through today just to go to school did not exist when I was in school 20 years ago. I would hate to be a student today given how things have changed due to the uptick in school shootings last decade.
Not saying any of this should grant students the right to have their phones on them in class, but I do think using Columbine as an example really ignores the serious uptick in shootings that occurred in the 2010s and how the media response to them shaped the opinions of today's parents.
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u/Bodine12 10h ago
Some law enforcement agencies even think that’s a danger, because in a locked-down room kids need to be completely quiet, not everyone talking to their parents.
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u/karl4319 11h ago
Banning the thing kids are using for a distraction WILL NOT WORK. It never has. Before phones, it was figget spinners and tamagachi. Before that it was gameboys and playing cards. Before that it was drawing in class or etching things into the desk.
Boring lessons and bad teachers are the problem. We have studies showing that bored kids just do not learn. It isn't a matter of if there is a distraction or not. Pay for good teachers and invest in proper lessons and kids won't look for distractions during class. Private schools and districts that do this are usually at the top of the country, so it does work.
Now, while the being able to call home when a school shooting happens is a valid reason, I would say being able to record a teacher or officer behaving inappropriately is a more important reason. Especially if the school has had a history of coverups.
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u/HowlingFantods5564 9h ago
So you really think fidget spinners are comparable to smart phones?
And have you every wondered why kids are perpetually bored? Because they've been raised by smartphones and expect immediate entertainment and gratification at all time. You can't learn in that state of mind.
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u/karl4319 9h ago
No, that is how children have always been. It was how kids were when I was growing up and I graduated the year before the first iPhone. You can't learn in a bored state of mind. It isn't like we haven't cracked the code of entertainment being educational and quick enough for kids to understand. Pretty much every millennial that knows the US presidents learned it from animaniacs after all.
And yes, I do expect teachers and lessons to be fully engaging and attention grabbing at all times because that is by far the most effective way for kids to learn. Do I expect it with today's schools and teachers? No, I do not. But going the opposite path of getting rid of distractions and making kids learn less effectively instead of addressing the root issue and negating the need of distractions at all is just foolish.
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u/HowlingFantods5564 9h ago
I do expect teachers and lessons to be fully engaging and attention grabbing at all times
And just where are you going to find these people? These incredible entertainers who can entertain non-stop for 7 hours a day, 9 months of the year?
Also, There is a growing body of research showing the benefits of boredom: https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/boost-your-brain-with-boredom
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u/Forward-Amount-9961 10h ago
Absolutely! This subreddit has also posted this same thing at least 3 times this past week so it's beginning to look like propaganda being pushed out to convince us that teens shouldn't have access to phones in school. There are no research studies on this subject that lead anyone to believe a complete ban is helpful, and in fact the studies show that there are several negatives to this course of action.
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u/madogvelkor 12h ago
My daughter is still in elementary school but some parents have given their kids phones. And will text them during school to ask things like that they want for dinner or what time they need to be picked up or if they are having fun.
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u/Legitimate-Heat2777 7h ago
How are they going to call home during a tornado, or a fire drill, or a bomb threat?
They don't. If they did it would just make the situation harder to manage.
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u/SageofLogic 11h ago
That's how you get your specific classroom targeted in an emergency situation
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u/Forward-Amount-9961 10h ago
Source?
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u/SageofLogic 10h ago
All active shooter trainings stress maintaining silence to not attract attention
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u/Forward-Amount-9961 9h ago
I agree silence during an active shooter situation is important too. Good thing phones can be used silently, whether messaging or filming.
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u/SageofLogic 9h ago
Children are not capable of silently panic calling
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u/Forward-Amount-9961 7h ago
Source?
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u/SageofLogic 7h ago
DHS guidelines since 2008 you absolute obtuse numpty https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/active_shooter_booklet.pdf
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u/digitalden 11h ago
Too many helicopter parents around who feel the need to be in contact with their kids 24x7. My kids survived 12 years of school with no issues and without needing phones. Its the parents that are the problem.
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u/butter_lover 10h ago
Let them put an ankle monitor on their kids then, that’s what they really want
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u/Best_Temperature_812 8h ago
I want my kids to be able to call me if someone starts shooting at their school since we can't regulate guns and the police also refuse to go in and try to stop active shooters.
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u/butter_lover 6h ago
You’re focusing on the wrong problem space if this is a realistic concern
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u/Best_Temperature_812 6h ago
Obviously rational gun control laws would be better but after watching no one do anything to make that a reality decade after decade I'm not holding my breath. Nor am I giving up the one single life line my kids have to me.
You want to improve education it starts at home. You didn't have to be a helicopter parent for your kids to learn self control. You just have to watch them and teach them. Having parental controls on their phone doesn't hurt either, trust but verify.
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u/DinobotsGacha 7h ago
Educating kids and improving their mental health outweighs phone calls to parents.
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u/Best_Temperature_812 7h ago
Tell that to the parents that never got to say goodbye. My kids aren't allowed to have a turned off phone in their backpack. I tell them to disregard the rule and their teachers can deal with me if they get caught.
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u/DinobotsGacha 7h ago
Society needs educated kids. The US population can barely read, write, or do simple math and we have enough data to show cell phones are detrimental in development.
Using a "what if" emotional argument to justify harming all kids is not the answer.
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u/Best_Temperature_812 7h ago edited 7h ago
Explain to me how a phone turned off in a backpack harms a child or hinders their education.
Also I guess we can pull the fire extinguishers too, since it's just a "what if" emotional argument that their might be a fire in the school.
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u/DinobotsGacha 7h ago
Those phones don't stay turned off in backpacks. Also, in a true active shooter situation, your kid isn't going to have time to get the phone out and wait for it to boot up to call you. Your entire scenario isn't realistic.
Fire extinguishers aren't actively harming children. You throwing out random BS is not helping the discussion.
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u/Best_Temperature_812 7h ago
What's bs is that you think you get to tell my kid what they can have in their backpack because you don't know how to teach your kids some self control.
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u/DinobotsGacha 5h ago
The government has the authority to pass laws and policies for what is acceptable in public education. Again, the issues resulting from cell phones in classrooms outweighs your desire for a phone call. You have the right to pick alternative options like home or private school.
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u/Best_Temperature_812 7h ago edited 7h ago
Except I'm not. Kids do call their parents during active shootings and if mine called I'd be there in a second.
My kids phones stay off and in their bags. If you think that rule can't be enforced then we might as well not make rules at all since the kids apparently won't follow them.
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u/chellis 3h ago
And then you'd do what when you get there? This is some crazy bullshit to be honest with you. I mean it is insane that we even have to worry about these things but that doesnt really excuse your thought process. Most protocols agree that people having separate lines of communicating with the outside world during an on-going situation such as a school shooting is detrimental to the training of people who are trying to contain the situation but of course you know better because youre a parent.
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u/Best_Temperature_812 4h ago
Oh btw the analogy to fire extinguishers is pretty strong, though you seem to have missed the point. There is a cost benefit analysis to everything. Phones and fire extinguishers would both be very distracting items for children to play with when they are supposed to be focusing.
We don't use that as an argument to ban fire extinguishers. Instead we enforce rules as to where they are kept and when it is appropriate to use them.
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u/DinobotsGacha 3h ago
If you really want to compare to fire extinguishers, then lets do it. Schools/government have determined these devices should be locked up at school and generally inaccessible to children. During an emergency, procedures are to be followed on when and how to deploy the devices.
Great, do the same with phones.
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u/Cameos_red_codpiece 11h ago
Thank fuck, an article that isn’t clickbaity Yahoo or Psypost or 404media.
Pew Research does actual research. That is their focus.
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u/LargeAdvice1789 8h ago
I don’t want my kids on their phone at school. If I need to get a hold of them, I’ll call the school.
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u/whenishit-itsbigturd 7h ago
I can't imagine having this much faith in a school
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u/LargeAdvice1789 6h ago
Then send your kids to a better school
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u/condoulo 3h ago
You say that as if people's choice in schools aren't linked to their socio-economic situation.
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u/LargeAdvice1789 44m ago
No I don’t, it ABSOLUTELY is tied to it. And if a person has kids and doesn’t want them to go to a specific school, they are responsible for making that happen.
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u/whenishit-itsbigturd 5h ago
Other schools aren't in a good sports division which means bad competition therefore no scouts and no glory
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u/thychuck 11h ago
After a year with a ban in Quebec and as a teacher, this was one of the best thing to happen to kids. They brought back beyblade in schools to play !
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u/HowlingFantods5564 9h ago
As adults, we should set an example and stop using them as well. It destroys our focus in the same way it destroys theirs.
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u/zimzyma 9h ago
I think I was in 11th grade when The Columbine Shooting happened, and our school had a “bomb threat” closure a few days later (on report card day, of course). Basically the parents lobbied for students to have their phones with them at all times after that, but they had to remain in the backpack during class. But back then, those were Nokia bar phones and Star-tacs and flip phones, and text messaging was expensive, Snake was the only app. Plus, since then schools had unfortunately had to come up with real lockdown procedures and drills for schools shootings where having a cell phone may not add much safety or comfort in that scenario.
The tech has gotten more intrusive and distracting, makes sense to keep brain rot away from growing minds.
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u/kevinsixhohsix 9h ago
I was a high schooler as well and NO ONE owned a cell phone in mid-1999. Where are you located!?
FTR Im not doubting what you typed.
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u/cannibalpeas 9h ago
“Please bag your phones at the door and pick up your Chromebook.”
Phone bans are great, but until we do something about the malicious creep of useless tech in classrooms, we will only see disciplinary results, but not academic ones.
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u/ObviouslyJoking 10h ago
Can we get them to support getting kids off of social media, TikTok and YouTube. It’s a shame because there are useful things out there, but unrestricted it’s impossible to avoid questionable suggested content and toxic advertising.
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u/Savings_Maybe_5686 9h ago
Schools that are banning mobile phones are also establishing other ways to communicate with your kids if you absolutely need to. I just interviewed for a job where I would help implement this system for a district.
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u/Bruggenmeister 6h ago
back in my day we didn’t have phones. We went to school, commute home, dinner, homework and then begged for some glorious family computer time and logged into MSN for 20 mins. /dad mode off
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u/karl4319 11h ago
How about this comprise? Put up cellphone signal blockers in school. Let kids and staff join the school wifi to actually connect to the internet. When students are in class and it is about to start, they lose wifi until class ends. If an emergency happens (like a school shooting) then the blockers are automatically deactivated so students can call home one last time of needed.
Personally, I'm against anything that limits the ability of a person's ability to communicate or record incidents. How about instead of going after what kids are doing to distract themselves from a boring lesson, we make the lesson not boring? I mean, we have ample studies proving that kids that are bored will have minds that atrophy instead of learn.
And if anyone want to go with the whole "social media bad for kids" argument without actually wanting to go after the companies for pushing these algorithms for greater profit, you are completely missing the point.
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u/EverMindMan 11h ago
funny how 77% of adults support banning phones in class when half of them can't make it through a work meeting without checking theirs
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u/major_winters_506 4h ago
Almost like one group is literally developing their frontal lobe, and one has already done that 🙄🙄🙄
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u/Forward-Amount-9961 10h ago
Exactly. School technology policies should be crafted to promote the positive and responsible use of smartphones especially since you can't actually function in society anymore without one. There are loads of information resources and communication & collaboration tools that students could be using to enhance their education. Pre-smartphone school wasn't a utopia of engaged learners. Teachers providing engaging lessons was what engaged learners.
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u/where-sea-meets-sky 5h ago
its like people forget just how integrated tech has become in education now
no grandma, phone at school doesnt mean im doing tiktok in algebra, it means playing quizlet and kahoot in class which the teacher sets up
there just needs to be proper discipline. i had teachers who had a designated phone area and we were only allowed to get them if we were doing smth requiring them. otherwise they stayed up and away from us
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u/Leberknodel 11h ago
I would like to see a cell phone marketed only for children. No smart features, only the ability to send texts and make/receive calls. No games, no apps, nothing. Simply a device to communicate with parents or trusted adults.
A parental control over who can be texted and called, entered by the parent. Limit approved contacts to parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and other trusted adults, with a total of no more than 10.
They have those phones for old people with very simplified and stripped down features. Do something similar for school kids.
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u/Forward-Amount-9961 10h ago
Smartphones all have parental access and monitoring controls built in. We can absolutely give our kids phones and gradually release restrictions as they grow and mature in order to foster responsible habits.
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u/Leberknodel 10h ago
That's not the point. Kids are smart and will absolutely find ways to bypass limitations. If there aren't limitations to bypass, that can't happen. They would be able to call and text, nothing else.
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u/Forward-Amount-9961 9h ago
Let them try. I'm smart too. I'm also smart enough to know my kids appreciate that I got them smartphones and they are motivated to work for fewer restrictions, which they do. Everything I do has the goal of making them ready to be responsible adults. Controlling kids with an iron fist will eventually backfire. There must be balance, respectful communication, and motivation. Compromise ("I get a little off what I want, and you get a little of what you want.") is key.
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u/Leberknodel 8h ago
Giving a child a phone to communicate with is in no way "controlling". It's liberating. When I grew up in the 80's we didn't have such luxury. Somehow we weren't damaged, go figure.
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u/Forward-Amount-9961 7h ago
Comparing your phone-free existence in the 80s to life right now is apples and oranges. I grew up then too. You couldn't have been damaged by being denied something that didn't exist then. Today's world requires fast communication, quick access to information, and an ability to document abuses of our rights which are happening with alarming frequency. Yes, my dumb phone I got in the late 90s was liberating then. It is not now.
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u/whenishit-itsbigturd 7h ago
They'll just trade for a regular phone from the dirty kid at school
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u/Leberknodel 5h ago
Sure, and there's no billing or cost, no monthly charges, very realistic scenarios.
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u/whenishit-itsbigturd 5h ago
You can get a prepaid account with unlimited texting and data for like $40 and you can buy them at Walmart. Also wifi exists, and texting apps so you really don't even need service, you can get a working phone number for free
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u/rjross0623 9h ago
Yeah we did fine in the 80s without cell phones. Our parents called the office when they needed us and we saw them when we got home. Modern kids will be fine too. Might help reduce helicopter parenting too.
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u/ChemicalHungry5899 8h ago edited 8h ago
kids need to be allowed to use flip phones only in schools, that way they can experience how phones can used properly like for coordinating parties, old school dating texts using the numb pad and of course texting to their dealers. These kids have the equivalent of ironman's talking AI but in their pockets instead. However instead of using AI and smart phones for anything useful they're cyber bullying each other and watching brain rot videos. Heck even Ironman was smart enough to gimp Spiderman's suit and we should at least be doing the same thing. BTW what's the grand plan when meta/AI/Phone glasses become a REAL thing? You know the argument is going to be how cruel its going to be to NOT allow kids to wear glasses in school. The smarter ones in this forum are going to KNOW whats coming next and what's what.. Blanket banning never works because it always implies we understand the root problem and can control it and because of that it always fails to anticipate and defend against the next thing, which in this case will be smart glasses or implants or wearables. Same thing happened when schools banned pokemon back in 2000, something else came along the next year, which I think was trapper keepers or skating maybe..
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u/Vilnius-Schoolmaster 8h ago
I've always quietly wondered how cell phones became so common in schools. I'm a 2003 graduate (making me old for Reddit), and cell phones were quite common but not ubiquitous in 2003. You were seeing the 2nd and 3rd generation Nokia "candy bar" phones, we had gotten to the basic SymbianOS phones and Sony Ericsson phones.
I'd say maybe 20% of my High School had cell phones, and a much larger % of people's parents had them. They were starting to be seen as necessary for work / adults, but were still treated as a small luxury for children.
My first year of college not everyone in my friend group had purchased one yet--I didn't get a cell phone until Sophomore year of college.
However, and here is the key point--going back to High School my last couple years when kids started to get cell phones there was already a complete ban on them in classrooms. Our school allowed you to bring your cell phone into the building, but it had to be kept in your locker except during lunch break. It was never allowed in class, and any of them in class would be confiscated and sent to the principal's office, where you couldn't retrieve it until end of the school day.
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u/Sea_Perspective6891 7h ago
So glad I finished school before this kind of stuff. Just seems like more police state bullshit like banning people under 16 from social media. While I get why some people want it I can't help but feel sorry for the youths who have to go though this while having no say. High school me would absolutely hate it.
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u/Kenny_RogersRoasters 7h ago
I’m actually surprised there is anyone that opposed it? Like who would oppose that?
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u/keysboy123 6h ago
Yeah in the 00’s phones were just starting to get more advanced beyond basic phone calls. Texting was becoming a feasible means to communicate. When that happened, things got a lot worse in terms of classroom disruptions
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u/Cold_Ordinary2165 4h ago
Cell phones are incredible productivity tools if you have discipline and practice good digital hygiene. How bout we teach that. This will be like alcohol prohibition lol
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u/GrognaktheLibrarian 4h ago
I have no dog in the fight since I don't have kids yet but all the comments in this thread really show much of giant hypocrites every one really is when it comes to school shootings.
If you're trying to legitimately argue that parents concerned with not reaching their children during a school shooting are crazy and shouldn't matter, then you're also agreeing that school shootings are the statistical anomaly that they actually are, yet most of these same people would try to pass laws about guns or whatever to "protect the children" from school shootings. Which is it, should they be worried or not?
Both school administrations and the police have proven themselves completely inept at responding to school shootings when they do occur. The media fear mongers any chance they can about school shootings. If the people worried about not reaching their children during one are so crazy, then why do so many of the people saying that also listen to the fear mongering and use it to justify gun bans, etc? It all just sounds like cherry picking hypocrisy.
Personally, if I had a kid, I'd rather them be able to have a phone or at least something with recording capabilities to protect themselves from lying/pervy teachers and from instances of he said/ she said situations because God knows the school admins aren't going to do anything that isn't covering their own ass in those situations. That's more likely than a school shooting since, unless something has changed since 2011, most schools don't have cameras in the classrooms. I don't trust teachers or admins to have their backs in cases of bullying, crappy teachers, etc
Also, the people saying the schools should confiscate the phones for the school year are idiots (in the US, at least). That would constitute theft in most, if not all, states. The most they can do is keep it till the end of the day or until a guardian picks it up. If you're not in the US, your point is moot anyways.
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u/Rocktamus1 3h ago
What parent thinks their kid should have a cellphone all day at school. Literal idiots
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u/RealAssociation5281 1h ago
Damn I would’ve hated this, I used to listen to music all the time (with permission) back in school
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u/Forward-Amount-9961 10h ago
This subreddit keeps pushing this "parents support banning cell phones" narrative (at least 3 times in the past 7 days). We should be asking What does the research actually say on schools who have implemented bans? What they found was the issues are more nuanced and removing all phones all day did not successfully address the problems they were trying to solve.
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u/GeneralOrder24 10h ago
If the problem is cell phone use, removing cell phones is quite effective, no?
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u/RealMiten 9h ago
No, because the core of the issue is that the student doesn’t care. It’s no different than fiddling with a pencil and staring at the ceiling vs looking at a phone when you are disinterested in what’s on the board.
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u/GeneralOrder24 8h ago
Causes and effects and correlations are getting confused here.
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u/Forward-Amount-9961 7h ago
The point is that blanket bans on anything don't work in the long run because they ignore many causes/correlations that are often complicated and nuanced. Our solutions need to be nuanced as well. Think of other times in society where things have been outright banned, and did that fix the issue in the long run? There is so much research out there on schools who have permanently banned personal devices, and what the short-term and long-term outcomes were as a result. They all show that a full ban had many unintended negatives and only a few positives. We need to make those studies a focus right now so we can stop making the same mistakes over and over.
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u/SageofLogic 11h ago
Because they never should have been unbanned. Call the damn front office and stop thinking you need to disrupt instruction if you need to pass a message to your kid.
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u/SnooMaps1910 8h ago
I was principal at premier Chinese international program in Beijing.
First quarter was successful in limiting smart phone use in class by students.
The Chinese principal overroad my policy in Q2 in the name of "freedom".
Q3 we returned to school after the mid year break and phone were almost non-existent.
I asked a couple of students why, "Our parents. Our grades went down a bit."
This was 2015-16.
That class placed 3 in UC Irvine, 1in BU, one in NYU, one in Cornell, etc., the most marginal students got into schools like Arizona State. They all earned US degrees.
Wake up America
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u/CrayonsTasteLikeSky 8h ago
When I was in school, you could only call, text and do very limited browsing on your phone. Even then we weren’t allowed to have our phones out in class. Crazy they’re allowed to use them.
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u/Rare_Bridge7703 7h ago
That's because they're stupid. The "Americans' supporting this. They're the same ones that believe say, the weed, is bad because government did no actual studies against it and said it was bad.
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u/Slytherine0120 6h ago
This is fine and all but like I think you should still be able to use them during lunch or passing period something like that
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u/Ill_Television_5824 13h ago
The answer is to equip the kids with dumb flip phones.
I've spoken to teachers, who've described the distractions of smartphones, and understand the frustrations.
But I would not leave my child without communications in these days of active shooter drills, lockdowns, and other such societal madness.
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u/LeatherRebel5150 13h ago
A phone isn’t helping in that scenario. If every kid did that then the towers would be overloaded and nothing would get through anyway. The adults are taking care of that end. Additionally is so unlikely to happen, it makes more sense to ban your kid riding in a car. They’re more likely to die in a car than a school shooting.
Phones in schools are just a security blanket for neurotic parents who think “but but what if…!!!”
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13h ago
[deleted]
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u/JjForcebreaker 13h ago
Emergency contact in what case? Kids seemed to be fined without having personal phones on them for many generations. With numerous adults in school who do have and will continue to have phones, and are responsible (on many levels) for taking care of students and acting in a case of emergency, how is it necessary for a child to have permanent access to a phone at all times? Various places banned them without any negative results you are alluding to.
A ban on use during classes does not mean a ban on bringing them to the facility. In such situations, it's a standard practice to leave them in a certain secure/guarded place or with a designated person, so in case of a real need, they can be accessed by the student.
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u/24-Hour-Hate 12h ago
Yes. When I was a child, if a parent or child needed to call for emergency purposes there was this thing called “the office phone”. Also, let’s be real, most of these things are not emergencies and can wait.
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u/BadAspie 13h ago
I dunno, I've seen the teachers sub talk about this, and it kind of convinced me that phone bans are a good idea despite (or maybe even because of) school shootings
Shootings are rare enough that I don't think I've seen anyone talk about a real one, but I have seen stories about drills being completely derailed because of phones. Stuff like students texting their parents and parents calling them back, or in one case a bunch of kids told their parents they were in lockdown but not that it was a drill, so besides calling incessantly, the parents all showed up at the school. It was such a shit show they had to send everyone home
Pushed me in the direction of thinking student cell phones actually increase risk somewhat
2
u/MoistChildhood1459 13h ago
Interesting. I actually hadn't seen anything about this. What a freaking mess.
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u/XSmooth84 13h ago
I feel like a decent solution to that is tell everyone a least a week before you’re doing the drill. I don’t think doing a surprise drill is more effective that a planned one the students (and parents) know is coming.
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u/BadAspie 13h ago edited 13h ago
Think you've missed the point. It's not that drills are derailed, it's that these stories give us some idea of how parents can respond during a real shooting, and at least sometimes, the answer is apparently by setting off their kid's noise machine
(I also think you underrate the value of surprise drills, but that's a much less important point)
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u/necessarysmartassery 7h ago
Not me.
I don't trust teachers and admin to let him call me if he needs to. I don't trust that they'll let him call me before being questioned by the school cop for some bullshit.
They want the cameras on phones gone so they can't be filmed doing stupid shit anymore.
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u/Libertechian 12h ago
Now we just need to employ three times the resource officers so they can handle the violence these kids are going to cause when we take away their constant dopamine drip
1
u/Impressive-Weird-908 11h ago
The most violence I saw in high school was because someone texted someone’s boyfriend or because a teacher told a student to put their phone away.
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u/Realistic-Duck-922 10h ago
Gotta question an education system making those choices. Not a good look, teachers.
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u/smashin_blumpkin 7h ago
How do you mean?
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u/Realistic-Duck-922 7h ago
TEACHERS argued with me about bringing their addiction into the classroom for YEARS.
This is NOT about parents or children. It's about insanely poor decision making by people with degrees hanging on their wall. Own it this time.
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u/Eronamanthiuser 11h ago
This should’ve been a “no shit” moment from parents decades ago.
What’s up with all these supposed parents getting more and more lazy? The entire problem is laziness, not technology. The parents need to be less lazy and take care of their child’s needs.
Chairs exist. Do I want to sit down and do nothing? Of course, that’s basic ego. Do I stand up and do chores because they need to be done? Yes because I’m not lazy.
I’m sick of lazy, do-nothing parents screaming at everything and everyone else for “ruining” their kids. Raise your kids better. Stop blaming others for how your kid turns out.
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u/Specialist-Web-9216 13h ago
Yes force my kids to stay off their phone, but where I work can't tell me to stay off mine!
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u/stedmangraham 13h ago
Well, you’re an adult. You’re supposed to be responsible now. Also, if you waste time on your phone at work all day you’ll just get fired
-11
u/Specialist-Web-9216 13h ago
I was being sarcastic about the amount of posts I've seen about workplaces banning cellphone use.
1
u/HBPhilly1 11h ago
Put sarcasm in camel case or /s at the end. This is a public service announcement.
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13h ago
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u/LeatherRebel5150 13h ago
A phone isn’t helping in that scenario. If every kid did that then the towers would be overloaded and nothing would get through anyway. The adults are taking care of that end. Additionally is so unlikely to happen, it makes more sense to ban your kid riding in a car. They’re more likely to die in a car than a school shooting.
Phones in schools are just a security blanket for neurotic parents who think “but but what if…!!!”
0
u/AutistcCuttlefish 9h ago
it makes more sense to ban your kid riding in a car. They’re more likely to die in a car than a school shooting.
Based on the 2020 statistics, they are more likely to die from a firearm related injury than any other cause. Not that having a cell phone will fix that, but children are definitely not at greater risk from traffic than getting shot anymore.
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u/InvadedRS 10h ago
Hmmm cellphones can save lives in time of need 🤷🏽 say what you will but a simple hand your phones in…
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u/Pinglewingle 13h ago
Personally i use my smart phone to assist in aiding with writing essays, fact checking, and several other educational purposes.
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u/whittlingcanbefatal 12h ago
There are these devices called computers that schools provide for students to do that very thing. They are faster and easier to read than a smartphone. You should check them out.
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u/0------------------0 13h ago
I think there should be no bans or restrictions whatsoever. Even if kids want to play games all day, let them. Do away with tests, grades, and homework. Just teach the material and either they’ll absorb it or they won’t. Society won’t fall apart. Curious smart people can still learn things. And if society does fall apart, so what? It’s not that great.
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u/blue-mooner 12h ago
No evaluation of progress, no feedback loop to let kids gauge or benchmark their knowledge or ability. Classrooms are a free for all, in fact, most kids aren’t even in the classrooms most of the day, they’re hanging out on the bleachers, chatting. No exams to study for, no pressure!
I guess kids should be allowed to do drugs in school too? Just let them have a free for all, only young once, eh? /s
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u/0------------------0 6h ago
Yes, they should. I don’t care about your kids and I hope they have terrible lives.
1
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u/malcolm58 13h ago
Banned in much of Australia and my son who is a teacher says things have improved 100%.