Or maybe you assume they’re planning their next ram raid or whatever.
Well if that’s you, then you will love National’s plan to ban mobile phones in all schools. No ifs or buts. No phones at lunchtime. No phones during recess. No phones at school. That’s what’s going to happen if National is in government after the election in October.
Which I think is one of those ideas that sounds great but what a nightmare to make happen.
It sounds great - to someone like me anyway - because I’m as guilty as the next person of thinking that anytime a kid’s on their phone, they’re not doing anything useful.
And that’s what National is tapping into with this policy. It wants to appeal to the likes of me - and maybe you too.
Because, if you’ve got kids at home - teenagers especially - you’ll know how infuriating it can be when you see them smiling at something on their phone when you know they should be getting on with that assignment or studying for their next exam. Or maybe even doing something useful around the place.
I reckon if they ever did research to find out what parents say to their kids most these days, it would probably be “put that bloody phone down”.
So imagine what it must be like for teachers with 30 kids in the room and trying to get them to focus on what they should be focused on. Trickier for the teachers too because they’d be hauled off to the Teaching Council if they told a student to “put the bloody phone down”.
National says the reason it wants to ban phones in schools is because it thinks it would help sort out the situation with fewer kids leaving school with NCEA Level 2 and above now, than 10 years ago.
It’s saying today that, if the kids weren’t so distracted on their phones, more of them would be doing better at school. But I don’t know if you could get a more simplistic view of the world if you tried.
Because what about the kids who aren’t doing well at school because they go home every day to a completely dysfunctional living arrangement? What about the kids who aren’t doing well at school because the system has let them down time and time again and no one’s clicked that they might be dyslexic or something. Or it was picked up so late that they’re going to be playing catch-up forever.
What about those kids? Banning phones at school isn’t going to make any difference to them.
Or the ones who had to go out and find a job during the pandemic because they’re parents lost their jobs during the lockdowns - and, because of that, they’ve just dropped out of the system.
I know for some people that’s hard to believe. But that is reality for some kids and their families.
And how rich would it be, do you think, for us to tell the kids they can’t have their phones with them at school, when they see us staring into the things all the time ourselves? When they see us on our phones when we’re doing things like driving? Talk about hypocritical.
Another thing too is whether parents would be happy for the kids not to be contactable during the school day. Because, as a society, we’ve fallen for the line that being able to contact the kids all the time, anytime is a good thing.
National says if phones were banned and parents needed to contact their kids during school hours, they could just call the school office. Can you imagine that?
It would also be putting it on schools to determine how to enforce the no-phone rule. One of the ways it’s suggesting is getting the kids to hand their phones in at the start of the day. But what would the likes of Burnside High School or Cashmere High School do with more than 2,000 phones?
John MacDonald is the Canterbury Mornings host on Newstalk ZB Christchurch. This article was first published HERE
It sounds great - to someone like me anyway - because I’m as guilty as the next person of thinking that anytime a kid’s on their phone, they’re not doing anything useful.
And that’s what National is tapping into with this policy. It wants to appeal to the likes of me - and maybe you too.
Because, if you’ve got kids at home - teenagers especially - you’ll know how infuriating it can be when you see them smiling at something on their phone when you know they should be getting on with that assignment or studying for their next exam. Or maybe even doing something useful around the place.
I reckon if they ever did research to find out what parents say to their kids most these days, it would probably be “put that bloody phone down”.
So imagine what it must be like for teachers with 30 kids in the room and trying to get them to focus on what they should be focused on. Trickier for the teachers too because they’d be hauled off to the Teaching Council if they told a student to “put the bloody phone down”.
National says the reason it wants to ban phones in schools is because it thinks it would help sort out the situation with fewer kids leaving school with NCEA Level 2 and above now, than 10 years ago.
It’s saying today that, if the kids weren’t so distracted on their phones, more of them would be doing better at school. But I don’t know if you could get a more simplistic view of the world if you tried.
Because what about the kids who aren’t doing well at school because they go home every day to a completely dysfunctional living arrangement? What about the kids who aren’t doing well at school because the system has let them down time and time again and no one’s clicked that they might be dyslexic or something. Or it was picked up so late that they’re going to be playing catch-up forever.
What about those kids? Banning phones at school isn’t going to make any difference to them.
Or the ones who had to go out and find a job during the pandemic because they’re parents lost their jobs during the lockdowns - and, because of that, they’ve just dropped out of the system.
I know for some people that’s hard to believe. But that is reality for some kids and their families.
And how rich would it be, do you think, for us to tell the kids they can’t have their phones with them at school, when they see us staring into the things all the time ourselves? When they see us on our phones when we’re doing things like driving? Talk about hypocritical.
Another thing too is whether parents would be happy for the kids not to be contactable during the school day. Because, as a society, we’ve fallen for the line that being able to contact the kids all the time, anytime is a good thing.
National says if phones were banned and parents needed to contact their kids during school hours, they could just call the school office. Can you imagine that?
It would also be putting it on schools to determine how to enforce the no-phone rule. One of the ways it’s suggesting is getting the kids to hand their phones in at the start of the day. But what would the likes of Burnside High School or Cashmere High School do with more than 2,000 phones?
John MacDonald is the Canterbury Mornings host on Newstalk ZB Christchurch. This article was first published HERE
5 comments:
A lot of schools, including my daughter's, ban the use of phones during classtime as it is.
Don't know how effective it is or whether it's always enforced. I seriously doubt it.
The reality is that announcements like this sound great but they ultimately fall to the individual teacher to enforce. Kids know that if enough of you keep doing something you're not supposed to the teacher soon can't be bothered.
Anyway, it's not like they can pull you out and meaningfully punish you these days.
Sounds good to me and the majority of those that voted yes to the idea in a straw poll. One shouldn’t let the Public Interest journalism blind one’s judgement.
To me, it's simple.
I am a retired pharmacist.
Pharmacy staff were not allowed to have their phones on their person during working hours. The phones were kept in the staff room, and they could check them out at tea break or lunch time.
The reason - well the staff are at work, TO WORK !! Not to use their phones.
Just like checkout operators at the supermarket, and many other workers.
Similarly, school kids are at school, to LEARN, not to use their phones.
End of story !
It is interesting that you mention Burnside High our children went there and they had a successful ban on cell phones. Also this is just one part of hopefully turning education in NZ to something with more positive outcomes.
I have read your post lately and all you seem to be capable of is negativity,try coming up with some answers.
Our Minister of ( mis) Education believes children need to learn how to manage their cell phone use themselves and not be dictated to by adults.
This is pure child-centered educational ideology based on an 18th century romanticism notion that children are naturally good and know best what to do. Result: the catastrophic destruction of discipline and learning in our schools. This idea defies common sense and ordinary observation.
This same nonsense idea has had us compelled to believe for four decades children learned to read naturally themselves with minimal instruction and direction. Just look where that has got us.
There is an aspect to banning phones in schools that is more complex than you would think.
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