this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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Before phones, students were distracted by fidget toys, tamagochi, bubble gum, various collectibles, comic books, ordinary books, paper notes, drawing, pen twitching, etc.etc.
Students always find ways to get distracted. Take away everything and they'll still be rocking on the chair.
So if the purpose of banning distractions is to make students more attentive, well.. it's just not going to do that.
Then there is online bullying. Has bullying actually increased or are we just seeing it more, because it's now documented? Banning phones in school won't stop it from happening outside school hours anyway.
I'm not advocating for allowing phones in schools during lectures or anything, but it's pretty clear to me that an outright ban is an outdated solution that will only hide the issues instead of solving them.
While I don't disagree, social media is the problem and what are schools going to do about that, except for banning phones? You also can't compare getting distracted by a pen or piece of paper, to a phone with bright colours and notifications, specifically designed to be as addicting as possible
Social media is a problem for sure.
Also, thank you for asking what schools are supposed to do.
The problem is schools not managing to encouraging pupils towards learning.
I know I've said this before, but the teachers curse is that nothing is taught until the pupil understands it themselves, and is willing to absorb the material put in front of them. Encouraging pupils to want to learn ought to be top priority for any school. Banning phones is a lost cause, because they're already lost at that point. They're bored, so they rock on the chair or fiddle with a phone. I seriously don't think that social media addiction is the core issue here. It's an issue for sure, but it's not what is keeping kids from learning. Boredom is.
Regardless of technology, paying attention is entirely up to their own willingness to learn. Teachers should be feeding the desire to learn, not in a "fellow kids" kind of way, but by showing them why the curriculum is important to them.
I totally acknowledge that there's no reason to have a phone in class and that social media is bad, but it's relevant not issue in teaching.
Fair points, although I'm not sure that's easy to solve. Some teachers are more interesting than others, but schools, especially middle and high schools are too generic for a whole class to be able to listen. Not everybody is going to enjoy chemistry class, while others are just not going to be happy in PE or foreign languages (me). I think a major rework of the school system is required for this to be kind of solved, but it'll never go away completely.
I think putting all the responsibility on schools is not the right approach, they're probably already doing their best, but that just doesn't work on every kid