Comments on Thoughts on Education Policy: The NYC Cell Phone Ban

I don't doubt that that policy works in a lot of s...

2008-05-19T17:57:00.000-05:00

I don't doubt that that policy works in a lot of schools, but it absolutely did not in mine (and I've seen it not work in other schools as well).

My school's policy is that you can bring cell phon...

2008-05-14T20:45:00.000-05:00

My school's policy is that you can bring cell phones and other electronics to school but once the school day starts, they can't be used.

If you see something being used, you can take it or tell the student to put it away--and some times a teacher will just look the other way.

It seems to work pretty well.

Good points.Cell phones were a major issue at my s...

2008-05-12T00:19:00.000-05:00

Good points.

Cell phones were a major issue at my school, but I'm sure they're not at others. And, you're right, they were an issue b/c there were deeper behavioral and cultural problems in the school.

I'd agree that schools should be allowed to implement other policies they think are workable, but I wonder how many principals prefer the central policy. In other words, if the principal doesn't feel there's a workable solution, then when parents complain about the policy they can say "sorry, it's out of my hands" rather than having to explain why they're not allowing kids to bring cell phones into the school.

That's not to say that individual teachers and schools aren't circumventing the ban. I routinely locked phones in my closet if students asked me to (rather than confiscating the phone and scolding the student).

As a parent of a middle schooler who just got a ce...

2008-05-12T00:11:00.000-05:00

As a parent of a middle schooler who just got a cell phone, I tend to be skeptical of the ban.

My daughter's school has a "cell phones must be off during school hours" policy, and I haven't heard that it's an issue for teachers, and I haven't heard of serious cell-phone related problems at the high schools.

I suspect the need for the NYC ban is a symptom of deeper behavior/discipline problems, and my gut reaction is that if a "cell-phones must be off" policy isn't workable, a school should be looking at what culture changes need to happen to make it possible.

And I guess what troubles me about the NYC ban is that the decision is not left up to the individual school sites. If a school can come up with a workable policy short of a total ban, I'd say more power to them. It's not an issue that has to be decided at the central level.