In response to Chris McGovern: Classroom ban on the smartphone drug. What took them so long?,
Vir Cantii – Flavo Togam wrote:
Any headteacher that needs an edict from the DfE to remove mobile phones from classrooms shouldn’t be a headteacher.
JohnB wrote:
Perhaps it’s also worth wondering why parents are even sending their kids to school with these things? I’m loath enough to spend £300+ on a smartphone for myself; there’s no way I would give such an expensive thing to a child to take to school where, aside from being a huge distraction, it is also liable to get broken, lost or stolen.
Parents need to start taking responsibility for what they do and setting boundaries; we cannot just expect schools to sort out all these problems.
Busy Mum wrote:
What took them so long? They wanted it to be seen as a ‘state’ directive, one that would perpetuate the idea in children’s minds that the state – not their parents – is the ultimate authority.
39 Pontiac Dream wrote:
I’d be interested to see how schools and colleges implement this ban. Are teachers now allowed to use reasonable force to snatch away a phone when it’s pulled out in class? When the student inevitably gets rowdy with the teacher for doing so, is the teacher allowed to defend him/herself?
On paper, it’s the eureka moment authorities should have had over a decade ago but in practice how will it be carried out?
Dogs Brexfast wrote:
Like Soma, the smartphone is also a kind of dummy or mental cosh.
If you are a stressed-out working parent with your kids on a rainy holiday it is a dream come true.
Otis Spunkmeister wrote:
Banning kids from smartphones is the first, last, and only thing that Waldorf / Steiner education got right. If I ever reproduce (a prospect that should cause terror in the hearts of all right-thinking people) they will not get a smartphone until age 16, and they will be proscribed from social media until that age as well.
I think that would also help cut down on the prospect of cyber bullying. Can’t cyber bully someone you can’t contact electronically.
suemary wrote:
Our local secondary/high school banned phones in the classroom a long time ago. Phones must be kept in the locker and not removed until the students go home. Any phone found during the day is confiscated. I cannot believe it is the only school. Only weak heads are to blame for the problem together with idiot parents who bleat about ‘human rights’.
Happy Hacker wrote:
I used to work in the education sector and it is not so long ago we were instructed to ‘embrace’ technology and encourage ‘young people’ to use their phones in lessons by building lesson plans that included their use – looking stuff up on websites etc. I never did. I knew then it was utter crap. No idea what took them so long, but at least they got there. I think every desk (or ‘Work Station’ as they are now called) should have a phone holder into which the kids should deposit their devices, screen facing front, switched off.
paul parmenter wrote:
If we are going to have classroom bans on things that are addictive, mind-changing and dangerous to children, can we include all species of politically correct indoctrination?
