http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richar...b_9666730.html
A buddy of mine posted this on his FB page, and I immediately knew everything that the article was going to say. That is because I absolutely agree with it, and foresaw this coming from a thousand miles away. I was an easily distracted teen. I didn't care much for school, and was far more interested in going out to skate board, or to play games, or whatever else I could be doing. But at that time, I didn't have a cell phone as they didn't exist like they do in today's world.
If I had this wonderful device in my possession when I was a kid, there would be absolutely no possible way for the teachers to reach me. I would be sitting on my phone, browsing and playing games all day lone.
Anyone who can look ahead to see future problems like this, knew we were going to have to limit the usage of cell phones in schools.
Here is a comment my friend who is an educator, made regarding this.
"I have worked in three schools thus far, and all three have a system in place for parents to get a hold of their children if there is an emergency, and it works like this: Parent calls school, school fetches child, child uses school phone to talk to parent. It's simple, straightforward, and minimizes distraction in the classroom.
In Alaska I had parents (and other relatives) constantly texting their children during class. Why? Your child is in school. You're the adult. Any emergency you're having will have to be sorted out by you! The only exception I ran into was an elderly caretaker who needed the student to switch out heating oil for her. The basic policy of calling the school would work just fine for that situation.
This topic is important to me as an educator because the response to "Please put your phone away" should never be "Fuck you." Sadly, though, that's what "screenagers" have said to me in the past."
That last line, "The response to "Please put your phone away" should never be "Fuck you.", is a whole other story. But all else he is saying is very true. There really is no reason at all for a student to have their phone in school. We got along just fine for decades without them, and there is no added need for them in school today. If you need a calculator, they makes those, buy one. If you need internet access, your school should have a way to provide it, otherwise it should not be on the curriculum.
Now, some of the younger folk might look at this, and think I am just out of touch with today's world. If you do believe this, please present a well thought out reason why the average student would need to have their phone in school.