a phone

[Scheherazade]

constantly getting them out in class, every five bloody minutes. They are the biggest single cause of disruption period.

I don't understand this. Can you not ban the use during the classes?

[Emil Miller]

I don't understand this. Can you not ban the use during the classes?

...ban the use during the classes? My god, what ever happened to human rights?

[Scheherazade]

...ban the use during the classes? My god, what ever happened to human rights?

Oh, Brian... I am only saying that because it must be interfering with the movies shown during the classes...

You know how it feels if a mobile rings during a movie... or when your interlocutor stops a sublime chat to answer their phone.

[LitNetIsGreat]

I don't understand this. Can you not ban the use during the classes?

They are banned during the classes.

[Paulclem]

Unfortunate or not, mobiles are a fact of life. The safety aspect alone means I want my kids to have theirs with them. I too, with a family and some elderly relatives, have my phone constantly on - though no-one ever phones usually.

I'm not suggesting that this should be the only method used, but lots of phones have the capability to be used in education now. How about texting your answers to this address... which is an internet site which displays the words. I've seen the demos.

As for phone etiquette - set your own etiquette for your friends and family. What others do is not really of concern.

[The Atheist]

Cell phones should be banned from schools.

They are from almost all schools during class, plus I know of several where they are banned from the school grounds entirely.

On the other hand, my daughter* attends a Junior High which allows pupils to have them sitting on their desks during the day and they are free to use them non-disruptively even during lessons.

Unsurprisingly, their usage levels appear to be very low.



*who is disgusted that she's the "only one" in her words, at the whole school who doesn't have a cellphone.

[soundofmusic]

Unfortunate or not, mobiles are a fact of life. The safety aspect alone means I want my kids to have theirs with them. I too, with a family and some elderly relatives, have my phone constantly on - though no-one ever phones usually.

I'm not suggesting that this should be the only method used, but lots of phones have the capability to be used in education now. How about texting your answers to this address... which is an internet site which displays the words. I've seen the demos.

As for phone etiquette - set your own etiquette for your friends and family. What others do is not really of concern.

I agree 100%, I also sometimes need to contact my daughter as to a change of plans. Also, some schools have used cellular phone texting as a way of letting the students know of threats in the school.
Is cell phone messaging a sort of cultural thing? I notice that most of my friends don't seem to be able to live without constantly messaging; but they are the sort of people who never plan ahead. Never make meal plans, never carry nappies for junior...always needing to depend on a friend for their next move.

They are from almost all schools during class, plus I know of several where they are banned from the school grounds entirely.

On the other hand, my daughter* attends a Junior High which allows pupils to have them sitting on their desks during the day and they are free to use them non-disruptively even during lessons.

Unsurprisingly, their usage levels appear to be very low.



*who is disgusted that she's the "only one" in her words, at the whole school who doesn't have a cellphone.

Well, get that girl a phone, Dad I wonder how often they lose their phones or loan them to friends?

[billl]

I read a statistic somewhere that claimed on average, American high school students text about 200 times per hour. Per hour?? I immediately dismissed the source. Then, the very next day, I noticed that one of my middle school students was unusually focused. When I asked him why, he said that his cell phone had been taken away from him and he wouldn't get it back until he raised his grade in English. But here's the clincher. The reason he'd lost his phone privileges? He's texted over 50,000 times that month and had gone over his limit.

Can you imagine doing anything (save, perhaps, breathing) 50,000 times a month? That number completely astounds me.

So, I say ban cell phones from schools. I'll bet that half these kids don't even know their own home phone numbers by heart.

50,000 times per month would be about 70 times per hour. That's better than 200 times per hour, but the calculation would include the hours during which the child sleeps, bathes, dresses, etc.

I think there is a good chance that the 50,000 refers to the number of characters that might be texted per month (and that the 200 might refer to the same thing). I can't be sure, but having seen actual high school children here and there pretty much most days of the week, they don't seem to be sending more than one text per minute, much less the number per minute that would be required to make up for the time spent sleeping, bathing, etc.

So it is maybe less alarming. But maybe not--50,000 key-presses per month (or 200 per hour) is a lot of time spent pressing buttons, definitely...

[Jozanny]

I have trouble using cells. Almost purchased a plan last year but gave up, though when I toppled last summer, if the hypothetical item had been within reach I would not have been down so long. They are just too small for my good hand, and I've gone without since my writer friends complained about them in the late 90's.

[soundofmusic]

I have trouble using cells. Almost purchased a plan last year but gave up, though when I toppled last summer, if the hypothetical item had been within reach I would not have been down so long. They are just too small for my good hand, and I've gone without since my writer friends complained about them in the late 90's.

Do you have one of those push button alarms around your neck. The problem is that it is only good at home. Don't they make larger phones?

[Jozanny]

I am going to get a Life Alert if they make reasonable terms for the disabled. I should go to the site now, in fact, but even a larger button cell gives me trouble music; my spasticity kicks a little in my good hand with palm toward the face, and I only used the cell my sister gave me twice, during the primary. The movers probably stole it but if I do find it I will sell it.

I am just not that big on this particular gadget, although the kindle uses cell technology, and if they could adapt it or program it for emergency services I guess that would be an added safety. I sleep with the ereader, eat with it, asked if it would like my power of attorney, and it put the request in my documents archive .

[billl]

Jozanny, that is a fantastic idea about the e-reader. I'm sure you aren't the only person who can make particular use of it because of its at-hand convenience. Why not send out a few emails about that?

[Nightshade]

I want my daughter to carry her phone everywhere for safety. There were so many times when school closed early for weather, or power outages, or the people who were supposed to pick her up from school didn't get there. One time, I picked her up just as it was turning dark, from a deserted school because the teachers aide that did her after school care found out her daughter was in the delivery room...Kids need phones, particularly in a world where parents can't be at home all of the time.

It's a parents job to teach their kids phone etiquette; or maybe not pay for the messaging and computer features.

Actually we had something slightly similatr hapen yesterday, a kid with no mobile, or rather no credit wanted to use the admistration phone to ring his mum as he had got forgotten off his bus ( we have afterschool support caalsses and activity sessions on a thursday and he wasn't supposed to stay this week but the bus left without him as he forgot to tell anyone he was staying, this is 14 year old we are talking about not a 6 year old ) . Anyway we had a parents meeting in the hall he would have had go through the answer was no, so I just lent him my phone to make the call. ANd reallly as long as the school provides a way to ring parents kids don't need pbhones at school! ( The school also has a pile of pay as you go phones that we let kids ring parents from when they need to)

I am going to get a Life Alert if they make reasonable terms for the disabled. I should go to the site now, in fact, but even a larger button cell gives me trouble music; my spasticity kicks a little in my good hand with palm toward the face, and I only used the cell my sister gave me twice, during the primary. The movers probably stole it but if I do find it I will sell it.

I am just not that big on this particular gadget, although the kindle uses cell technology, and if they could adapt it or program it for emergency services I guess that would be an added safety. I sleep with the ereader, eat with it, asked if it would like my power of attorney, and it put the request in my documents archive .

What about touch screen technology? I mean I find it increadibly annoying and i hae serious trouble with it but I heard it is supposed to be more acceseable? would that behelpful? But if you don't mind me asking don't you have trouble with the kindle? One of the things that put me off it are the full tiny keyboard I felt it would be too much like texting whihc i hate as my fingers constatly hit the wrong buttons!

[Katy North]

I doubt a touch screen would be much better... I'm constantly tapping the wrong button on mine because for some reason my fingers haven't centered right despite multiple calibrations...

[LitNetIsGreat]

I can understand that parents want to keep their children safe, but if it is that essential they take them then maybe they can be left in the office or some other arrangement? For me there is no place for them in the classroom and ideally in school altogether. Schools have been around long before mobile phones and somehow people managed to cope without them.

On the other hand, my daughter* attends a Junior High which allows pupils to have them sitting on their desks during the day and they are free to use them non-disruptively even during lessons.

I can't for the life of me get around this thinking. For me there is no such thing as using them "non-disruptively" if they are there, they are a disruption. I get your point about not creating an issue out of it and they won't necessarily want to use them (the old reverse psychology thing) but having 28 phones, 28 mp3s and all manner of whatnot lying around the classroom just seems quite ridiculous to me, like some sort of electronic armistice! Crazy.

The reality is probably that they couldn't enforce the ban on them in class so they gave in to this nonsense.