More Americans now support banning phones all day at school, not just in class

When I was a kid in school, you had to go to the office to use the phone.

How would it help for children to have phones during a school shooting? Everyone on the staff already has one.

Just make them leave it off. Anyone caught using a phone gets it taken away the rest of the day.

That's what we did with anything that was distracting when I was growing up. You can have it on you, but if they see you using it. It goes into the principal's office until EOD.

Go after the companies

Sir this is a Merica.

As a mom of two in a country where school shootings do happen far more frequently than anywhere else in the world, the US, I fully support completely banning phones from schools. The benefit to my kids education overall far outweighs the minuscule chance something would happen where they need their phones or a shooting took place. I say this also as a former American student who’s school did go on lock down a few times for active shooters in the area, like the time a local bank got robbed or when they found a “kill list” some kid made. It just doesn’t make sense to me to degrade education across the board in the very very off chance my kid, or even myself, was at the location of a school shooting.

It's not that hard. You keep it in your backpack, and never take it out the whole day while school is in session.

Are you suggesting a phone would stop the shooting?

Landlines

let the mobileks get dumber so the content creators can get smarter

You would need to make them dumber/more controlled. A dumb phone with unlimited texting is still going to be a distraction.

Someone is downvoting everything but I agree. I try and keep my helicopter parent impulses under control, but it is nice to know exactly where my kids are. My son (12) has a locked down old iPhone and Apple makes it pretty easy to make it practically a dumb phone. We literally have it set up so that he has to ask for permission before using any apps, with the exception of calling and messaging. (Even messaging is iffy; we want to be able to text him but it opens up texting with friends.) He doesn’t need it at school so he doesn’t bring it, but as he gets older, I’m sure it’ll start to go with him and I’m not upset about it. If he wants to go somewhere with a friend right after school instead of going straight home, it’s fine with me as long as I know about it. Without a phone, it’d be hard for him to make such plans on the fly, and let’s just say that planning ahead isn’t my ADHD-kid’s strong suit (yet—we’re working on it). As long as the expectation is set that he doesn’t use it during school, I think that’s okay; it can just live in his backpack until school is over.

I just talk to my kids and it works just fine

There are options for that. Like Gabb phones and such. No Internet or social media mostly just talk, text, and geolocation.

No kid wants that.

Ban the phones and make the kids do as we always did. Hide it and use it strategically when the teacher couldn’t see.

I agree with all your points, but want to add one: cheating with AI should be redirected to effective use of AI as a tool. I would approach a writing class topic like this:

1. Welcome... as our first assignment you are going to switch off all technological assistance and write a paper for me on XYZ, just using what you know off the top of your head here during class. Turn this in and keep a copy.

2. In classroom, tech limited to non-AI research - read and cite original sources, improve your paper with the research, check all of your assumptions, correct them when appropriate, cite backup when you find it. Does your conclusion change? Again, freeze a copy of this iteration.

3. Homework "use AI" (with no instructor direction as to how). Write the paper using all available technological resources (including AI) now, provide helpful starter links to AI resources that "can help," then compare that to your previous versions.

Instructor / teaching assistants now grade papers 1, 2 and 3 with maybe 10% total weight in the final grade for each.

1. In classroom guidance on how to use AI well, with copious embarassing examples of AI used poorly (names withheld, but students might recognize their work...)

2. Homework: for any students who turned in "less than ideal" papers in 3), try again. Fail again. Fail better this time.

3. In classroom pop-quiz: just like the first assignment, switch off all technological assistance and write the paper on XYZ just using what you know during class.

Grade 5 and 6 for points, 30 points for 5, and 40 points for 6.

In mandatory attendance schools, some will do more poorly on 6) than 1), that's just the nature of the setting. Those who want to learn should be able to improve along the way, rather dramatically.

How long have you been a teacher? Just curious. I agree with your points, and they also make me glad I left the profession after 15 years. I taught internationally and in both private and public schools in the US, and cell phones were a scourge at all of them. AI is the bigger issue in my opinion, and I’m super happy I quit right when it was taking off. Teaching is becoming more and more pointless, and everyone is getting passed along, etc. There needs to be an overhaul on standards to become an administrator and teachers should be required to have masters degrees. I couldn’t believe how many teachers I worked with who weren’t curious about anything—didn’t read, didn’t study, and were not that intelligent. In fact, it got to a point where I just left the profession, and life has been infinitely better since.

Right. Probably correct

That subreddit paints a realistic picture of what it's like being a teacher, but I find it overly negative. While there are a myriad of reasons why education in the U.S. is in a bad place, there are also a lot of fulfilling and heartwarming moments to being a teacher that don't get brought up over there.

I don't blame the teachers, I blame the system. I know too many teachers who have been yelled at by admin for daring to teach in a way the kids can learn because it's "not what you're supposed to teach, stick to the curriculum."

Digital literacy doesn't do much when it comes to tech engineered to hook you and grab your attention. It bypasses the frontal lobe entirely.

At this point I don't even know anyone who managed to use something like Instagram "occasionally" or in controlled manner. It's way too addictive for this, and usage spirals out of control pretty fast.

I do agree with you generally though, schools should only use evidence-based interventions or none at all, no exceptions. In healthcare rolling out a drug without randomized control trial would be called heresy.

But when government does it, it makes it mandatory for all kids immediately, and then ignores increasing pile of evidence how it's bad for decades

It’s tough.

Kids are going to use their phones for random bullshit in class no matter what if they are allowed, but phones in general can be a fantastic learning tool used in the classroom.

I wonder if we might eventually see schools distribute phones like they do laptops, even though that in itself is rare. It would allow the school to lock them down during school hours. Maybe include some option to buy out the phone/number when a student leaves.

A common complaint of not allowing phones is that students can’t contact their parents quickly in an emergency or vice versa. A locked down phone with “emergency contacts” fixes that issue.

One of the more chilling moments of the '90s for me was when they put the child safety restraint seat laws in at federal level. Now, I had a newborn and a toddler at the time, and I was voluntarily putting them in the best safety seats we could get, but to me what those laws were was training the populace, from the earliest ages (up through age 5 I think) that they MUST COMPLY with the OVERWHELMING FORCE of adults bigger than them and submit to being physically restrained the whole time they are in a car. It's like they were prepping the population to be less resistant to arrest and physical restraints.

I always thought homework was some employers' wet dream about getting their employees to not only work for the company while in-office, but also to work all night long too. And I know some "go getter carreer oriented" people with aspirations to management who did exactly that for decades. Personally, I rate my work product and volume as "optimal" with around 30 hours a week of focused devotion to task, beyond that I do more bad work which has less total value than if I just did the 30 hours and knocked off to let my brain rest, refresh and reset to do another good 30 hours next week.

We used to be a proper society

When was that?

Back in the good old days when homosexuality was a felony, the cure for autism was an ice pick lobotomy, and certain people would be killed for being caught in nice neighborhoods? Proper society.

I propose we build all new school buildings as giant Faraday cages.

Yeah, when I was a kid growing up in the US, no cell phones during class was the standard. If you took it out (or if it wasn't on silent and rang during class) you got a warning, then next time it would be taken away and given back at the end of class or end of the school day with escalating consequences for repeated violations.

Digital devices will always be a potential distraction, even with just simple calling and messaging. What amazes me most though, is how far we'll stretch to avoid regulating the actual actors causing the most harm (social media).

Devil's advocate take: was the phone app the only way to ease your anxiety, or was it just an option that was recommended due to the trend of trying to have our phone do everything?

I mean, I would vastly prefer your solution, but it's much more difficult to step in and police every social media company such that they aren't working against the user. This is basically a band aid, but a band aid is better than nothing imo

I mean I’d rather have my kid have a better education over all if they’re addicted to their phones or not.

It's the parents that are the problem. The problem is, when schools try to ban them, parents flip the fuck out. They become apoplectic at the idea of not being able to instantly reach their kids at every hour of the day. A surprising number of parents install tracking apps on their kid's phones. They have them tagged like wild animals under study.

So schools are stuck compromising with unenforceable rules. Instead of banning phones entirely, they'll ban kids from having them out in class. Which of course never works, as the kids just take them out as soon as the teacher turns their back.

If you have any concern about "fair" - you haven't experienced much of real life.

Nope. As a dad I want to be able to reach my kid when need to and I want her to be able to do the same

Not to be a jackass but what will their phone help with in this supposed murder factory? If ur so worried about a shooter or something, it's not like the phone puts them in an invincibility bubble or something.

American history teacher tries to pass state propaganda as fact, I want to have the internet available to find sources either that confirm what I’m being taught or refut it.

In high school we had a mandatory senior year "Americanism vs Communism" (AVC) class, if ever there were an obvious propaganda slot - taught by retired navy no less. In reality, he didn't know much about Communism and had the good sense to keep his mouth shut about it, basically taught freshman Civics all over again.

The problem I have with your position is: you can find anything and everything on the internet, from stone cold facts to complete fiction and everything in-between, and especially with AI assistance in building websites it's becoming harder than ever to differentiate between the two. Now, you get some 9 year old who lives in a 3 generation Faux news viewing household, hears "the facts" from all his family and all their friends every day, armed with a browser full of shortcuts to all the "Best" websites - I, as teacher, absolutely do NOT have time to knock your head off and screw it back on straight, nor would that be a good thing for me to do career wise. FAR FAR easier to get 45 minutes of captive time to say what I want to say - which may or may not be fed to me by the state censor board - and at least give you one perspective instead of having open debate with 30 children and their website "sources" every day, all period long. Having said that, maybe 10% of classroom time should be devoted to intelligent, safe, thoughtful internet research of the topic at hand - but not every time a child thinks they have all the answers.

Our AVC teacher was about 5'4" - MAJOR Napoleon complex - he didn't give a damn about the anti-communist propaganda, his (mostly failed) goal was to instill respect and discipline in our about to graduate teenage minds... That was his core driver every class every day all 90 days that he "had us." Lots of teachers have these personal agendas, they're not all bad, and it's actually an important part of your education to experience some diversity among your teachers like that - you never know when you'll meet someone more or less like them in real life, and having that school experience might just teach you how to work better with the versions you meet in real life.

Your doom-scroll will always be waiting there for you at home, if your parents allow it. If you've made it to 18 years of age and still feel repressed, you're welcome to make your own way in the world and discover the truths, lies, and half truths that await you all on your own. I'll submit: if you've got enough skepticism to fact check your teacher in class, you can probably resist the brain washing without needing instant gratification from "sources you trust." And, classroom time isn't for you to convince your 12 year old peers how wrong that tool at the front of the room is, you'll have plenty of time outside of class for that.

Leave in lockers. The law says teachers can confiscate them for class if out and then give them back at the end of class.

A third of the country still thinks Trump is doing a good job. They probably don’t even know the difference

In the US this isn't legal. Signal jammers are outlawed period, you can't even use one in your own private residence. The FCC is super clear on it's legality. Any form of signal jamming period that can disrupt a communications signal such as a cellphone or wifi signal on US soil is a felony. They have even gone as far as fining companies who sold devices that could potentially have been used to signal jam over the restriction. In the US the only time you can use any device that has the capability to block signals is by a federal agency on a case by case basis

They actually have had (its been replaced with a much shorter excerpt that only mentions classrooms in a passerby) a FAQ about signal jammers where they explicitly mention it's use in the school environment.

I am a principal or school teacher and would like to use a jammer to limit cell
phone calls and texting during school hours. May I do so?

No. It is a violation of federal law to operate a jamming device within the U.S. Cell phone
jammers do not distinguish between social or other cell phone conversations and an emergency call to a family member or a 9-1-1 emergency responder. In an emergency,
use of a cell jammer can pose a threat to both students and staff by preventing
communications with police or emergency services.
In other words, jammers, even if carefully targeted, create risks of interference outside
their intended zone of operations and can thereby disrupt critical communications by
public safety providers, as well as the legitimate communications of passersby.

I'd sorta think this is a good idea but I'm not really down for putting cellphone jammers or anything like that on school property. Freedom comes first.

The solution is to fund schools better for better education programs and more staff who would be able to handle rule infractions better. Harder to use your phone in class when 3 staff members are around engaged with the kids.

So you're saying witches were real and there was actual scientific evidence to back up the existence of their powers?

And the schools themselves are just doing it because they're scared to death someone will record something in the school get they'll end up in legal trouble.

But a demographic they all were and most will one day not be. Yes, there are overly parented kids; and yes our system makes the stair step function of responsibility incredibly steep. But there will be plenty of time for scrolling and phones, screens in general in classrooms are not the curl all we thought they were.