Will confiscating children’s cell phones solve all problems?

• The use of cell phones in schools is a controversial topic and the source of many disputes
• The use of cell phones during lessons is clearly negative
• Vsetín has decided to take a drastic step, he wants to completely ban mobile phones from children at school

That he has the city of Vsetín under his leadership Jiří Čunk close to idiosyncratic, simple and bad solutions, we probably should have gotten used to it by now. After the eviction of the inconvenient mainly Roma families outside the city, Vsetín approached confiscation of mobile phones from children in schools.

It is not just a ban on the use of cell phones during classes. One could not disagree with that. It’s not even about prohibition of use while at school, which would be worth at least raising an eyebrow. Vsetín wants ban cell phones in school completely. Children are not supposed to wear them to school at all, and if they do, they will have to submit and they get them back when they leave.

The school law and the confiscation of mobile phones

The city refers to school lawWhich says: “School regulations or internal regulations may limit or prohibit the use of mobile phones or other electronic devices by children, pupils or students, except for their use to the extent necessary for health reasons.” But I’m afraid that under “restrict or prohibit usage” is very difficult to classify cell phone confiscation. Also, I can’t imagine how anyone would find out that a child has a cell phone with them. Do teachers want to conduct personal inspections?

The matter is not black and white, of course. There are a large number of children who have cell phones at school and use them judiciously, if at all. The second group, which Vsetín tries to argue with, uses the phone in class, excessively during breaks or even for cyberbullying.

The report states: “They repeatedly confirm that the use of mobile phones is harmful to children various studies, even thanks to them we know that 40% of children have psychological problems, to which the excessive use of mobile phones contributes significantly. A separate chapter is their use in schools, where it clearly reduces the concentration of students and the effectiveness of learning, not to mention the danger of bullying. That is why we consider it important to contribute to the solution of the problem by banning cell phones across the board in our primary schools. Of course, in justified cases, for example due to health restrictions, there may be exceptions to the rule,” – but the source for those studies is missing from the report.

Problems related to mobiles

No one will probably dispute that children spend a lot of time on mobile phones. There are also cases of cyberbullying, when children recorded beatings or even worse things on their mobile phones and then published the recordings on social networks. On the other hand, just because of this, real-world bullying was exposed. Another argument is nplaying teachers but let’s remember a recent case female teachers questioning Russian aggression in Ukraine. We remind you that the children started recording it only after the teacher started making amazing statements. So we might ask if only the city is trying to prevent children from being able to obtain evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the teaching staff? Interestingly, the report does not mention any restrictions on teachers. So they can probably use cell phones in class without restrictions.

The positive contribution of mobile phones

The case of Vsetín appears to be a perfect demonstration of the proverb of Fr throwing out the baby with the bath tub. We do not have the right to own a mobile phone in the constitution (even though Article 17 could be used), but nowadays the mobile phone is a common object, without which you can practically do nothing. The argument that children do not need mobile phones on the way to schoolonly recent commissioning is off the table FAIRTIQ application for traveling in IDZK transport system.

Another use of the mobile phone is the possibility of payment using Google Wallet. Of course, instead of a mobile phone, they can pay with cash or carry a plastic payment card, but do we want kids stuck in the last century? That’s what the town’s aging population seems to be up to. Limit all children’s access to information and technology under the guise of a few goons who teachers can’t handle.

We didn’t have mobile phones and we survived

A similar argument is made in discussions under the articles with various variants of spelling mistakes. I have only one comment on this: the basic feature of the mobile phone is the ability to keep people in touch. When I was young, there were no cell phones, so when I went to a classmate’s house from school instead of home, my parents could go crazy with worry. Just call or send an SMS today. And that children look at mobile phones? So what? I was constantly reading again. Even when teaching under the bench. The ban addresses the manifestation, not the cause of the problem. Let’s give children a reason to look around instead of looking at their mobile phones.

When we asked readers at Android World 5 years ago for their opinion on banning the use of cell phones in schools, the majority were more in favor. But beware, it was a ban usagenot about confiscating mobile phones!

If there were no cell phones, people would be talking

A student’s view

“As a student of the upper level of an eight-year high school, I understand the skepticism of teachers and parents who support the ban, but at the same time I agree with the group of opponents on many points. I personally feel that my cell phone can distract me during class and force me to focus on completely different issues than what I should be attending to at that moment. The topic for another discussion is whether it actually bothers me at all, because I still hold the position that in order to maximize the use of my time, I would prefer to deal with school only at home and I would rarely physically go to it…

In the lower grades, where children are usually less independent and more easily disturbed by other sensations, I accept the ban on mobile phones. However, as a teacher, I would try to think about ways to include smartphones in classic teaching (whether it is information searching, working with modern tools such as ChatGPT, etc.). At the same time, I find it completely absurd that phones should be locked or, God forbid, confiscated. I would not feel comfortable as a student in this situation. It will simply remain in the bag and disciplinary sanctions will be imposed for any violation of the ban,” commented colleague Adam Kurfürst.

How do you view the confiscation of cell phones in schools?

Source: website of the city of Vsetín