Cell Phones in School

(Photo: Michael Schennum, The Arizona Republic)

I was hot stuff in high school. I had a raspberry red RAZR flip phone that I could use to call my mom if I needed to. Did I know what texting was? Of course not, and neither did my classmates. We were in ninth grade, and back then, if you got caught with your cell phone, it got taken up.

One day my mom was trying to call me while I was at lunch, but she miscalculated my schedule and called me during the last three minutes of English. My horrendously evil English teacher proceeded to take my phone and give it to the front office. It was a Friday, right before spring break, and to get it back, my mom would have to come down to the school and pay $15.

Luckily I have the best mom ever, and I wouldn't have to go through spring break without my phone.

These days, I actually work at the school I went to 9th grade at, and things have changed drastically - not just at that school, but throughout the district.

Now, 6th grade and up are allowed to have electronic devices IN CLASS. We're talking iPhones, iPads, iPods, tablets, androids, the whole nine yards.

As if technology hasn't already completely wrecked the attention span of society's youth, we've let this toxin into our school buildings.

As a teacher it makes my already difficult job, 10,000 times more difficult! If the kids get bored, if they don't like what we're doing that day, if we're watching a movie - they're texting, tweeting, watching trailers and playing games. It is a constant daily battle to get them to pay attention in class. Have you tried telling a teenager to put their phone down? It's not an easy task.

A lot of people ask, "well, why don't you just take them up?" Which in theory sounds great, but if anything happens to that phone while it's in your possession, guess who the parents are going to be mad at? You! Not their kid for being completely incapable of paying attention for 45 minutes at a time.

Whoever decided that it would be a good idea for our students to have their tech in class made a huge mistake, because if we go back now, the students will throw a monumental collective fit. Phones/devices should never have been allowed in the classroom in the first place.

Now, you may think that I'm an old fuddy duddy for maintaining this stance, but I'm a young adult. I understand the desire for technology, but what it comes down to with these kids is a desire for entertainment. And unfortunately, they're going to learn later in life that one cannot be constantly entertained. They are there to learn, not play Candy Crush. And by the time these distracted kids get to college, they're going to be in deep trouble if they never paid attention from middle school on up.

As an English teacher, I've seen reading and writing skills steadily decrease, and it really doesn't surprise me. Even when I tutor younger kids (elementary), they think that they can call the shots. They believe that being bored is a crime against humanity, and that learning is boring. And why wouldn't they think that when they're allowed to go home and spend the majority of their time glued to technology. For heaven's sake, put a book in the kid's hand! Even a Kindle would do at this point.

So why am I going on about this? What do you care? Well, you should care, because today's kids lack patience, discipline and respect. They don't need to read books - they have TV. They don't need to know how to write - they text. They don't need to pay attention in class - they have celebrity gossip. They don't need to respect the teacher when he/she asks them to put it away - they'll get big bad mom and dad to complain to the school.

We're raising a society that is becoming increasingly ill equipped to handle life's challenges, and as long as their grades are good, most parents don't care. But you should.

You should let your school district know that with the introduction of personal technology in the classroom, your students are getting less and less out of school. Teacher's jobs are hard enough, let's not make it even harder for them. Please, encourage your kids to put their tech away at school, and get involved with your district concerning technology.

Additional Resources on the Topic:

Cell phones and text messaging in schools:
http://www.schoolsecurity.org/trends/cell-phones-and-text-messaging-in-schools/

It's a terrible idea to allow cell phones in schools:
http://nypost.com/2015/01/11/its-a-terrible-idea-to-allow-cellphones-in-schools/

Horrid result when teacher confiscates cell phone:
http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/horrid-result-when-teacher-confiscates-cell-phone/

Views shift on cell phones in school:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/personal/2013/08/07/views-shift-on-cell-phones-in-schools/2607381/