School cell phone ban likely
Look for a widespread public school ban in 2025 on the student use of “cell phones, smartwatches, tablets, and gaming devices” during the school day.
A proposed “model policy” from the state says: “Students are prohibited from accessing devices or wearing device accessories during the school day unless explicitly authorized for classroom use. Devices and accessories must be stored in lockers, backpacks, or as directed by the school district. The district may prohibit possession of devices and accessories on school property.”
Here is a draft policy to be reviewed by the state school board January 22.
There is no statewide policy on the use of electronic devices by students. The state board asked the Department of Education in October to draft a model policy and this is what the state has come up with.
It seems reasonable enough, as the idea of hundreds of kids spending the entire school day looking and interacting with their phones, watches, tablets and gaming devices makes it impossible for any guided learning plan.
But I also wonder if this is the equivalent of banning the pencil from a classroom in 1900? Or forbidding the use of calculators in 1980?
The speed at which electronic devices are changing the world, with no end in sight, has vastly outstripped the ability of institutions such as schools to cope and understand what is happening.
That this revolution is driven by billionaires who don’t comprehend the impact of their inventions on the human mind should frighten everyone. They don’t comprehend the impact because they have no clue, along with the rest of us.
What kind of world are we preparing young people for? The gap between the reality created by billionaires interested in profits above all else and slow-to-change educational institutions is immense. The human mind hasn’t changed since the invention of the iPhone in 2007, but distractions multiply by the minute.