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New York governor to launch bill banning smartphones in schools (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Kids don’t need cell phone

It looks like the ban isn't on all cell phones. Dumb phones are permitted; it's phones capable of Internet use:

Hochul said she would launch the bill later this year and take it up in New York’s next legislative session, which begins in January 2025. If passed, schoolchildren will be allowed to carry simple phones that cannot access the internet but do have the capability to send texts, which has been a sticking point for parents. She did not offer specifics on enforcing the prohibition.

Do kids need them? I mean, they obviously don't need them. I didn't have a cell phone when I was in school.

And they certainly can be a distraction.

But...the flip side of that is that they can also be a pretty important tool.

I use my smartphone as a reference, to reach Wikipedia, etymonline, various dictionaries, to get translations.

I use it as a tool. I have maxima on it, an open-source computer algebra system; think Mathematica. It's a lot more useful than something like a TI calculator. I think I touched my graphing calculator about once after school. I have a unit converter on it. I have a weather program on it. I take notes, can search through them. Those are tools that I have with me all the time in life. If kids can't have a smartphone at school -- which is a mandatory part of a lot of the youth and teenage parts of their lives -- that's stripping them of access to a lot of important stuff.

At one point, I worked at a research lab that didn't permit devices with cameras inside, a much lesser restriction. It was a pain in the butt, and that was a long time ago, before devices were as prevalent and important as they are today. I wouldn't wish that on kids.

Part of functioning in the modern world is living in a world that has devices like smartphones. If a student literally cannot function in the presence of a smartphone, that seems like a much larger problem to me than anything else; employers are not going to cut them off from phones. I don't think that this solution is a reasonable approach to "student is being distracted". Like, part of socializing people for being able to function in society has gotta be to get them in a situation where they can function later in life, and if anyone should do that, it's the school.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

That's a good take but I gotta say- kids are kids. They WILL slack off, they will goof off, they will use the phones for other things. This isn't a critique- it's what kids do.

If they need tools then a couple ipads or similar can be used. I don't find the argument "they need to exist with smartphones in society" convincing for school. At work you know you'll be fired if you're caught using your phone too much, etc. and slacking off. Kids aren't under the same pressure as that and quite frankly I wouldn't expect them to act with that level of maturity as even some adults don't and they're older and should be wiser.

As for the problem of just existing with them? I feel like that is yet another thing that school won't solve. That is up to their parents, etc. Good habits start at home. Expecting schools to solve all problems (especially ones so entrenched like socioeconomic conditions, poverty, etc.) is half of why we're here in the first place. But guess what? If the kid is given a tablet or allowed to use a cell phone at the table and basically whenever/wherever they want, do you think their behavior will be different in school? Do you think it's up to the school to be forcing this? That is yet another ridiculous burden I think we'd put on teachers and staff.

Moreover, don't you think we should be conditioning these kids that it's ok to exist without a phone?

These kids won't be worse off without phones. Like you said- the rest of us did just fine without them. Let them have a calculator and computers in computer class and call it a day.