Banning phones in school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went from ES to MS this past year and phones are the reason I'm leaving education altogether. Barely any kid had a phone in ES and if they did, they left them in their backpacks. MS students live on their phones. They cannot function for less than two minutes without them and our principal was no help in the matter. "They are addicted and you can't just take away an addict's fix." It definitely needs to be addressed at a system level because each principal is going to have their own opinions on how to deal with them..and some principals obviously don't have the greatest decision making skills based on my own experience.

+1000
Another teacher here and in particular MS is the biggest problem. The kids cannot manage themselves and it just amplifies the usual MS drama.

I think that all MS should use the yondr pouches all day. Kids put them in at start of day and they are locked all day including lunch and passing times. Kids can unlock the pouches when they leave at the end of the day.

Right now kids are losing the ability to interact with each other because they are so phone addicted. Remove the phone and they have to talk to peers. Bonus is that with phones locked all day maybe parents won’t give in to peer pressure and hold off on getting their kid a phone until high school.

PP how many of your colleagues do you think, if polled, would agree with you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the research is out, phones are awful for our kids. Not to mention they never belonged in classrooms to begin with. Is there any movement by MCPS to ban phones in classrooms? What’s the best way to organize for banning phones? School by school or at the MCPS level?

I think the best way to do this is to organize at the PARENT level. Have the PARENTS not buy phones and there won't be phones in school. And if a kid brings a phone to school, then the PARENT can discipline his/her own child. PARENTS cannot create the monsters that have been come our children and then ask the school to fix it. YOU know you haven't set boundaries which is why your kids phone use is spilling into school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the research is out, phones are awful for our kids. Not to mention they never belonged in classrooms to begin with. Is there any movement by MCPS to ban phones in classrooms? What’s the best way to organize for banning phones? School by school or at the MCPS level?

I think the best way to do this is to organize at the PARENT level. Have the PARENTS not buy phones and there won't be phones in school. And if a kid brings a phone to school, then the PARENT can discipline his/her own child. PARENTS cannot create the monsters that have been come our children and then ask the school to fix it. YOU know you haven't set boundaries which is why your kids phone use is spilling into school.

How old are your kids, PP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the research is out, phones are awful for our kids. Not to mention they never belonged in classrooms to begin with. Is there any movement by MCPS to ban phones in classrooms? What’s the best way to organize for banning phones? School by school or at the MCPS level?

I think the best way to do this is to organize at the PARENT level. Have the PARENTS not buy phones and there won't be phones in school. And if a kid brings a phone to school, then the PARENT can discipline his/her own child. PARENTS cannot create the monsters that have been come our children and then ask the school to fix it. YOU know you haven't set boundaries which is why your kids phone use is spilling into school.

How old are your kids, PP?

6 and 14

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went from ES to MS this past year and phones are the reason I'm leaving education altogether. Barely any kid had a phone in ES and if they did, they left them in their backpacks. MS students live on their phones. They cannot function for less than two minutes without them and our principal was no help in the matter. "They are addicted and you can't just take away an addict's fix." It definitely needs to be addressed at a system level because each principal is going to have their own opinions on how to deal with them..and some principals obviously don't have the greatest decision making skills based on my own experience.

+1000
Another teacher here and in particular MS is the biggest problem. The kids cannot manage themselves and it just amplifies the usual MS drama.

I think that all MS should use the yondr pouches all day. Kids put them in at start of day and they are locked all day including lunch and passing times. Kids can unlock the pouches when they leave at the end of the day.

Right now kids are losing the ability to interact with each other because they are so phone addicted. Remove the phone and they have to talk to peers. Bonus is that with phones locked all day maybe parents won’t give in to peer pressure and hold off on getting their kid a phone until high school.

PP how many of your colleagues do you think, if polled, would agree with you?

All of them. I teach in HS currently, and this is a constant conversation all year about how even the advanced kids have lost skills of working with each other. Morning hall is filled with kids staring at the phones not talking. End of class? Phones out, not chit chatting like they used to. All prompts to work together or check answers together are met with silent stares. It’s really concerning.

[Anonymous]

Kids can access all kinds of things on the mcps computers so banning phones is not helpful when they just use the Chromebook for social media and browsing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids can access all kinds of things on the mcps computers so banning phones is not helpful when they just use the Chromebook for social media and browsing.

But much harder and looks far less cool to walk around with a big Chromebook in your hand than a phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine don’t have phones still, but you can’t ban them entirely. Many do need them for after-school activities, communicating where they are, work arrangements, etc

No, they don’t.

[Anonymous]

Also if MCPS wanted to address this they could do a systemwide ban. For especially awkward or shy kids the phone is a crutch and a barrier to socialization and it’s sad. During the pandemic I pulled my kid out of MCPS and put her in a private school that has a complete ban on cell phones. It’s been like that the past four years and it means kids have to interact at lunch and middle school recess, they aren’t texting and causing drama during the day and people aren’t huddled up into tiny groups sharing dumb reels. Now is there drama sometimes after school or on the weekend when the kids have their phones? You bet - but I’ve found it dissipates quickly because they HAVE to interact with one another once they are back at school.

I’ve also found that the parents at our school provide phones to kids later because it isn’t so central to socialization. Many did not get phones until 7th or 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

Most of the high school boys play video games or watch music videos all day long now. If asked to put it away some will just put their head on the table. Eventually they will try to be sneaky and look at the phone below the table. It’s actually really sad to watch them shut down like this when they can’t get their fix.

This is also the first year I am seeing “no screens in possible” specifically added as an accommodation to an IEP.

I also find it strange when a kid has a 504 accommodation but the parents give free access to a phone all day. Do they not understand parental controls? Do those kids having a phone is often basically a disability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the research is out, phones are awful for our kids. Not to mention they never belonged in classrooms to begin with. Is there any movement by MCPS to ban phones in classrooms? What’s the best way to organize for banning phones? School by school or at the MCPS level?

I think the best way to do this is to organize at the PARENT level. Have the PARENTS not buy phones and there won't be phones in school. And if a kid brings a phone to school, then the PARENT can discipline his/her own child. PARENTS cannot create the monsters that have been come our children and then ask the school to fix it. YOU know you haven't set boundaries which is why your kids phone use is spilling into school.

+1000. If only all or most of the parents would stop giving 11/12 year old phones this would be fine. Kids made it for centuries without phones and suddenly they can’t possible live without them when going into 6th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine don’t have phones still, but you can’t ban them entirely. Many do need them for after-school activities, communicating where they are, work arrangements, etc

No, they don’t.

And you don’t need to be on dcum, but here you are

[Anonymous]

Phones need to go. If the kid needs to speak to their parents, they can use a phone in the school office - the way everyone did just 10 years ago when phones were not everywhere.

Another problem is one-to-one laptops. Kids in school are watching movies, playing games and my daughter said a girl she knows spent weeks watching anime porn during Middle School science class (apparently not blocked the way actual porn is). For-profit tech companies, like Google, Microsoft, Lexia and Prodigy Education, have pushed the idea that kids need computers to learn. In fact, writing by hand is much much better for learning than typing and reading on a computer is much worse for learning than reading on paper. They have said that giving computers to poorer communities is an equalizer, but they've found that in poorer communities, kids just end up spending more time playing video games and less time learning.

Plus, with AI, kids aren't even typing their own essays. If you write by hand, you can't cheat as easily.

[Anonymous]

Parents are absolutely the problem and to blame. And now schools are being blamed for the poor attention, learning, and lack of meaningful socialization so they want schools to fix the issue by banning phones. Most schools already have a policy for putting phones away, but now they will have to invest in pouches and a lock boxes to manage the fix.

Meanwhile budget cuts.

[Anonymous]

At our private K-8 in moco phones have to stay in lockers until the end of the day. If a student is found with a phone it’s taken to the office and a parent has to physically come pick it up.
This is a strict policy. My tween only takes hers on days she has after school sport. Every other day it stays at home.
MCPS should have the same policy and enforce it every single time. No exceptions.