Cell Phones At School
69It seems to be a long-term argument throughout different schools these days whether or not cell phones should be allowed. Some schools have discontinued them completely, and some allow them at certain times. Cell phones have negative and positive attributes in a schooling environment.
Positively, cell phones are a defensive mechanism in hazardous situations. In case of an emergency, if a student needs to hide somewhere, or for some reason needs to contact one of he or she's parents, the cell phone comes in handy. Cell phones also have calculators on them that can be useful, and nowadays most cell phones have internet access and other sorts of neat tools.
For the same reasons that those attributes are positive, it can be seen how they are negative. Students can use their cell phones to cheat on tests/quizzes, and to distract themselves from classwork by text messaging friends who are also in other classes.
Cell phones should be allowed to an extent. They should be allowed between classes and during lunch periods or study halls if no work is at hand. They should be allowed in cases of emergency- and if the emergency happens to take place during a class, students should be required to notify the teacher or asked to be confused. Cell phones should not, however, be banned completely for campus. As long as they are not serving as a distraction throughout the schoolday, they are permissible.
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Comments
Ah, that is an extremely good point (the recording of what teachers say). So, as long as the teacher is notified if the student must use his/her cell phone (even though rules will be broken anyway) it should be fine. :)
Heck we got by perfect without them. think of our granparents who had no phone period. They made it . I never experienced an emergency situation at school thankfully. Usually we found out at home or got called to the office. I understand why recent school violence creates a bit of paronia but there are ways around this without distractions. You can get in situatoon without cellphones around so you need to be prepared both ways. The article made some good points about he positive and negative.
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH U WHEN U SAID THAT CELL PHONES SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED IN SCHOOL BECAUSE CHIDREN GO TO SCHOOL TO LEARN AND NOT TO MAKE CALLS OR TEXT.
The negatives outweigh the positives. It's time to make schools a "dead" cell zone. The Japanese have developed wall panels that deflect cell phone signals mechanically and are legal. It's time schools look into this and put an end to all this foolishness. BAN ALL CELL PHONES...even staff. We have phones in the classroom or offices if we need to call. If we are going to ban them from the kids, we should play fair.
Matt Libby says:
14 months ago
You mentioned some good points. In our local school here the High School students are allowed some use of their phones or laptops, but middle and elementary students may not.
All students if instructed to relinquish there pheon to an educator must with out question or face dire consequences.
Behavior management is not much different than keeping students from passing notes or chewing gum. And cheating on tests if students wish to cheat they will find a way.
While there can be opportunities for distraction or cheating probably the biggest danger to educators is being caught in an embarrassing situation. We have all had times we have said things that we wish we hadn't. If you do it in the classroom and it is recorded on a cell phone it could be cause for dismissal or even legal action.
Cell phones are here to stay. Well at least until surpassed by technology, so we will be constantly updating policies in regards to electronic media.