Should students be allowed to use cellphones in school?

[Genivaria]

Define 'use'.
Have them on their person? Yes.
Have them out while simply in the building? Yes.
Have them out during class time? No.

My High School had an idiotic policy that wrote up anyone who had their phone out AT ALL. You could be eating lunch with your phone out and someone would come up and snatch it from you, seriously fuck off.

[Katganistan]

Amusing (to me) story:

I had called home because one of my students was using his cellphone to watch basketball in class repeatedly, and spoke with mom, who was not amused.

A week later, dad comes up with kid for Parent-Teacher conferences and tells me flat out, "My son says he did not do it, and I believe my son." Reasonable questions like, "What possible motive would I have in telling you a lie?" did not budge dad. Kid looked pretty smug.

Literally, the next day, we are watching _Macbeth_ in class, and the only way to be able to see anything on the Smartboard was to turn off all the lights. Cell phones are REALLY bright in dark rooms and who had theirs out?

Quietly, I pulled mine out. Because I am pretty nerdy and not a "stealth" photographer, I'd left the default sound the phone made (the shutter sound) when I took a picture with it. Students sitting around him watched me get up from my desk, and walk right up to him. He was so engrossed in watching videos that he never saw me or realized I was standing over him until...... CLICK-WHIIIIIIRR!

He looks up in panic, "Oh shit."
And I said, "Uh-huh," went to my records, got dad's phone number and sent the picture of his son on the phone in class to him then and there.


Son did not have a phone for the rest of the semester. I'm convinced it was at least partly because he made his dad look like a jackass for defending him.

[The Great-German Empire]

They definitely should. Some parents would like to check up on them, especially if they don't go home after school immediately.

And even if the only rule you're pushing for is "no phones visible" I'm still not sure that's such a good idea. I mean, exchanging memes during break *is* a form of socialization, and some students might want to keep up with various forms of news. Regarding your argument about Snapchat, this is just one of those "enforce, don't prevent" things: Yes, it's a problem when people's (and especially minors') privacy is violated, but nobody usually dies from it. Just make it a rule that having somebody in a photo without their consent is prohibited, and there you go.

One thing I will say about school policies in general is that at least for Junior High and up, enforcing a mentality of "You are the teacher's full subordinate from the moment you walk in and until you walk out the school doors" is demeaning and detrimental, and only encourages students to be confrontational. You're not going to teach them to obey, period, so why pretend? In fact, a schoolkid's teenage years should at least start preparing them for the real world, and in the real world you have rights - so it doesn't make sense to have them be dead to rights in school.

[Luziyca]

Amusing (to me) story:

I had called home because one of my students was using his cellphone to watch basketball in class repeatedly, and spoke with mom, who was not amused.

A week later, dad comes up with kid for Parent-Teacher conferences and tells me flat out, "My son says he did not do it, and I believe my son." Reasonable questions like, "What possible motive would I have in telling you a lie?" did not budge dad. Kid looked pretty smug.

Literally, the next day, we are watching _Macbeth_ in class, and the only way to be able to see anything on the Smartboard was to turn off all the lights. Cell phones are REALLY bright in dark rooms and who had theirs out?

Quietly, I pulled mine out. Because I am pretty nerdy and not a "stealth" photographer, I'd left the default sound the phone made (the shutter sound) when I took a picture with it. Students sitting around him watched me get up from my desk, and walk right up to him. He was so engrossed in watching videos that he never saw me or realized I was standing over him until...... CLICK-WHIIIIIIRR!

He looks up in panic, "Oh shit."
And I said, "Uh-huh," went to my records, got dad's phone number and sent the picture of his son on the phone in class to him then and there.


Son did not have a phone for the rest of the semester. I'm convinced it was at least partly because he made his dad look like a jackass for defending him.

God, to experience that moment that moment that he realizes he is done for, that would be incredibly priceless.

[Dylar]

They definitely should. Some parents would like to check up on them, especially if they don't go home after school immediately.

And even if the only rule you're pushing for is "no phones visible" I'm still not sure that's such a good idea. I mean, exchanging memes during break *is* a form of socialization, and some students might want to keep up with various forms of news. Regarding your argument about Snapchat, this is just one of those "enforce, don't prevent" things: Yes, it's a problem when people's (and especially minors') privacy is violated, but nobody usually dies from it. Just make it a rule that having somebody in a photo without their consent is prohibited, and there you go.

One thing I will say about school policies in general is that at least for Junior High and up, enforcing a mentality of "You are the teacher's full subordinate from the moment you walk in and until you walk out the school doors" is demeaning and detrimental, and only encourages students to be confrontational. You're not going to teach them to obey, period, so why pretend? In fact, a schoolkid's teenage years should at least start preparing them for the real world, and in the real world you have rights - so it doesn't make sense to have them be dead to rights in school.

If anything phone prohibitions do prepare students for the real world. I've worked in places that would give you a formal write-up for pulling out your phone just to check the time during working hours. Not saying every workplace does that, of course. And enforcing a mentality of subordination also prepares them for the workplace. Although there could be better ways to go about it.

[Shanghai industrial complex]

They definitely should. Some parents would like to check up on them, especially if they don't go home after school immediately.

And even if the only rule you're pushing for is "no phones visible" I'm still not sure that's such a good idea. I mean, exchanging memes during break *is* a form of socialization, and some students might want to keep up with various forms of news. Regarding your argument about Snapchat, this is just one of those "enforce, don't prevent" things: Yes, it's a problem when people's (and especially minors') privacy is violated, but nobody usually dies from it. Just make it a rule that having somebody in a photo without their consent is prohibited, and there you go.

One thing I will say about school policies in general is that at least for Junior High and up, enforcing a mentality of "You are the teacher's full subordinate from the moment you walk in and until you walk out the school doors" is demeaning and detrimental, and only encourages students to be confrontational. You're not going to teach them to obey, period, so why pretend? In fact, a schoolkid's teenage years should at least start preparing them for the real world, and in the real world you have rights - so it doesn't make sense to have them be dead to rights in school.

If anything phone prohibitions do prepare students for the real world. I've worked in places that would give you a formal write-up for pulling out your phone just to check the time during working hours. Not saying every workplace does that, of course. And enforcing a mentality of subordination also prepares them for the workplace. Although there could be better ways to go about it.

Yep.When working, some areas can take out the mobile phone, and some areas are forbidden to aim the mobile phone at the screen or file.Some areas have to go through security checks and hand over everything that can record data to security.Since the workplace defines these things through contracts, schools may also be able to regulate them through documents.

[Loben The 2nd]

Bro where have you been for the last ten years.

[Agarntrop]

Define 'use'.
Have them on their person? Yes.
Have them out while simply in the building? Yes.
Have them out during class time? No.

My High School had an idiotic policy that wrote up anyone who had their phone out AT ALL. You could be eating lunch with your phone out and someone would come up and snatch it from you, seriously fuck off.

sounds familiar

[Page]

Not during class. In the hallways between periods, at lunch, why the hell not. Back when I was in high school I got in school suspension for listening to my iPod during lunch. I demanded a reason from the capricious administrator as to why I shouldn't be able to do that. She was unable to come up with any rationale.

[Greenwichian Arcadia]

During breaks? Sure, why not?
In class? Probably not. However, some videos made during classes might be useful to give parents an insight on what exactly is taught on the classes.

[Region of Dwipantara]

As someone who very recently just graduated from high school: yes.

Outside class: yes, and there aren't really any good argument against that.

Inside class: yes. From my experience, cellphones and its access to the internet are a great great improvement to the education quality. Teachers nowdays quickly share their materials and class assignments through phone instead of wasting time and paper to print them. They are also a great way to access information for class tasks, research, activity, and discussion. Also, if a student isn't paying attention, taking their phone usually means that they'll find other means to distract themselves.

Anti-cellphone policies are ineffective, at least in my experience. My former middle school banned phone while my high school only ban it on certain occasions. On both occasion, I brought two phones: one is my sister's useless broken phone that I put in the collection bag, the other is my actual phone that I then secretly use. The class president and all the student council all hated the policy, so they easily cooperate with fellow students and warn us if 'surprise inspections' are imminent. After some time, the policy wears out and im fact many teachers (usually the easy-going type) started to not give a fuck to the restriction.

[Oceanor]

I literally wouldn't be able to do some classes without a phone. Many of my teachers have integrated phones into their programs, and it actually does help the learning process. Because of them, we can get so many more things done faster. We do have a few Chromebooks, but not nearly enough for even a quarter of the school to use. Allowing phones decreases the amount of money needing to be spent on technology and makes learning faster and easier. Why would you be against that?

[Cekoviu]

children under the age of 18 shouldn't be allowed to own smartphones or dogs

[Andsed]

As long as their not using it during class without permission, yeah.