The cell phone controversy…

…is really about control.  Well, not entirely.  In the hands of Ms. S. down the hall it is.  She shared an idea of some sort of locker system to lock kid’s phones away in.

I see that going swimmingly.  Let’s play out the pros and cons:

Pro:  No more fighting (about phones).  At least, after we got the phone from them and got it into the locker…

Students wont be disengaged from the lesson because of their phone.

Students wont have their recording devices readily available to post every fight, all the bullying, and well, other things get recorded in a high school, too.  (In case you can’t see how this is going, this is going to be the only pro I agree with.)

Cons:

Giving a student a pass to the phone lockers for emergencies real or otherwise.

Giving all our students passes to all their phone lockers when we want them to use their phones for educational purposes.

Taking the requirement of classroom management of phones away from teachers so we will be less prepared to handle it when…shocker…they find a million other ways to not pay attention in class.

she had some defenses:

admin should be held to the same 100% no excuses teachers are they don’t back us up blah blah blah.

a rule should be a rule either follow the rule entirely or don’t have it at all.

when suggested the cell phone policy be disbanded and students taught how to use it and how not to she rolled her eyes.  She didn’t say it but I read it all over her face.  “I teach art, not behavior!”  NO.  You teach students.  Teenagers at that.  Part of your job description is teaching them to be better nicer healthier people.  Do your whole job or none of it at all, please.  😛

She said it’s such a social thing pantomiming texting with her hands.  yes.  With out the phones they would and do just talk, and sleep, and doodle, and ask for passes and hit the students sitting next to them and sing songs out loud if they can’t play them on their phones…again, it’s about teaching why engagement and respect are important.

When it was brought up by a colleague that a neighboring well to do district has no electronic policy, they are taught how her response was “our students are not able to handle that.”  Yup.  That’s just racist.  And classist.  And ageist.  No student learns how to do anything when they are simply controlled.  No, that’s not true.  they learn one thing.  That you are no good at controlling them.