It represents a return to discipline that has been so sadly lacking these past few years.
New Zealand is too loose around the edges these days, we have a touch of the feral about us, and it is tragically exemplified daily in our schools.
Our performance has plummeted in documented testing in areas like maths, reading, spelling and science.
Our absenteeism rate is atrocious.
The kids leaving school with less than NCEA Level 2 is a crime, which makes the kids leaving school with no qualifications at all even worse.
Banning phones as National will do in Government is not a magic bullet, but it is a representation that things need to sharpen up.
We need to get our act together. I assume the reason they are making the call is to save individual schools the hassle.
That's the other problem with too many of us these days; we lack spine, we lack conviction, we are too happy to roll over.
Too many principles would love to ban phones but don't want to deal with the grief from whining parents and students.
So, the Government will do it for them. Ironically, the current Government, the one that lives to tell you how to run your life, says its not for them to decide. I watched the same people last week kill National's paid parental leave amendment, because you should not be allowed the flexibility to run your own life.
Yet, they want to control your kids access to Mum and Dad, but not your kid's school performance. How ironic is that?
By the way, the banning of phones isn't new. In fact, we are a mile behind many parts of the world, including Australia, who worked out ages ago that the scourge of the screen is holding kids back.
In general when the announcement was made you had the one camp saying thank God and the screaming about their rights, an emergency etc.
But, once implemented, it is seen as the right thing to do and they are glad someone made the call.
There is much to do to repair the damage to our kids learning. But small steps work.
And one of them is being taken today and not a moment too soon.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
Our absenteeism rate is atrocious.
The kids leaving school with less than NCEA Level 2 is a crime, which makes the kids leaving school with no qualifications at all even worse.
Banning phones as National will do in Government is not a magic bullet, but it is a representation that things need to sharpen up.
We need to get our act together. I assume the reason they are making the call is to save individual schools the hassle.
That's the other problem with too many of us these days; we lack spine, we lack conviction, we are too happy to roll over.
Too many principles would love to ban phones but don't want to deal with the grief from whining parents and students.
So, the Government will do it for them. Ironically, the current Government, the one that lives to tell you how to run your life, says its not for them to decide. I watched the same people last week kill National's paid parental leave amendment, because you should not be allowed the flexibility to run your own life.
Yet, they want to control your kids access to Mum and Dad, but not your kid's school performance. How ironic is that?
By the way, the banning of phones isn't new. In fact, we are a mile behind many parts of the world, including Australia, who worked out ages ago that the scourge of the screen is holding kids back.
In general when the announcement was made you had the one camp saying thank God and the screaming about their rights, an emergency etc.
But, once implemented, it is seen as the right thing to do and they are glad someone made the call.
There is much to do to repair the damage to our kids learning. But small steps work.
And one of them is being taken today and not a moment too soon.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
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