Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our private instituted a ban this year and the biggest thing it's done has grown relationships between the kids. They actually sit and talk. The academic piece is almost secondary.

Totally. Before my kids were tweens, I was only focused on the academic distraction/cheating piece of it (which is still huge). But the more I have read and seen firsthand about stunted social emotional development, the solution seems obvious.

Besides posting on here, and possibly providing testimony in front of the council, any other ideas on how we can support this? Is it worth emailing our council members? (If we do not live in Pinto's ward?)

Anonymous wrote:Our private instituted a ban this year and the biggest thing it's done has grown relationships between the kids. They actually sit and talk. The academic piece is almost secondary.

Totally. Before my kids were tweens, I was only focused on the academic distraction/cheating piece of it (which is still huge). But the more I have read and seen firsthand about stunted social emotional development, the solution seems obvious.

Our private instituted a ban this year and the biggest thing it's done has grown relationships between the kids. They actually sit and talk. The academic piece is almost secondary.

Anonymous wrote:
Some children obey and don’t use their phones in the classroom.

Thing is, lots of parents don’t trust the public school system. The kid’s phone is the only evidence of abuse in the classroom.

Obviously horrible things happen but if you're truly that concerned about your child being abused in the classroom I mean this respectfully, you need to get them out of that school.

As long as there are consequences allowed to be meted out, I'm a fan. And while we're there... let's also greenlight consequences for other infractions as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Some children obey and don’t use their phones in the classroom.

Thing is, lots of parents don’t trust the public school system. The kid’s phone is the only evidence of abuse in the classroom.

This, control your own child's cell phone use. Simple. Lazy parents want others to do it for them. They just use the school computers instead.

It is not about controlling your child's cell phone use. Even if your kid is somehow the one kid who can have a phone buzzing in their bag all day without looking at it, and who somehow manages to engage socially with peers during free/passing periods without looking at his/her phone. But even if that happens, other kids will not. Take it from somebody who has been a much later hold out about giving my kid technology. When all of their peers have phones and their faces are glued to them all the time, it really impacts instructions, and limits their social development. If the reason people think their kids need a phone is teacher abuse, yes abuse from teachers is scary, but a lot of things are scary. I would argue that statistically speaking your kid is way likely to be more negatively impacted by the phone. And there are other ways to address problems at school that existed before cell phones.

Anonymous wrote:
Some children obey and don’t use their phones in the classroom.

Thing is, lots of parents don’t trust the public school system. The kid’s phone is the only evidence of abuse in the classroom.

This, control your own child's cell phone use. Simple. Lazy parents want others to do it for them. They just use the school computers instead.

Question is whether they’ll be able to enforce a ban on kids doing 2/3 of the things they did on their phones on their school laptops.

Some children obey and don’t use their phones in the classroom.

Thing is, lots of parents don’t trust the public school system. The kid’s phone is the only evidence of abuse in the classroom.

Anonymous wrote:Our ES principal refuses to enforce this and leaves it up to teachers who struggle to enforce it. I would LOVE for the law to change.

It's ridiculous to leave it up to teachers. It is impossible for them to control phone use without a system in place for collecting phones each morning.

Our ES principal refuses to enforce this and leaves it up to teachers who struggle to enforce it. I would LOVE for the law to change.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The action doesn't require legislation, just a slightly motivated and competent principal. A number of schools already do this.

I know, including all the middle schools. But high schools and elementary are not as consistent. I hate that upper elementary teachers are having to fend for themselves in many schools and make/enforce their own policies.

We all know how leadership and turnover impacts schools, I think getting rid of the distractions would help educational and social outcomes for all DC so I am a fan of the citywide rules, not just for certain schools.
That way the city can be the 'bad guy' too so the principals don't have quite as many angry parents to deal with who don't support the ban.

Just so much research now on how detrimental it is...

+1

This is one area where I’d rather the principal can just say- it’s DC law. It allows them to spend time making schools better places for teaching and learning and gives one less thing to respond to squeaky wheel parents about.

Anonymous wrote:The action doesn't require legislation, just a slightly motivated and competent principal. A number of schools already do this.

I know, including all the middle schools. But high schools and elementary are not as consistent. I hate that upper elementary teachers are having to fend for themselves in many schools and make/enforce their own policies.

We all know how leadership and turnover impacts schools, I think getting rid of the distractions would help educational and social outcomes for all DC so I am a fan of the citywide rules, not just for certain schools.
That way the city can be the 'bad guy' too so the principals don't have quite as many angry parents to deal with who don't support the ban.

Just so much research now on how detrimental it is...

The action doesn't require legislation, just a slightly motivated and competent principal. A number of schools already do this.

Fingers crossed it can pass! We have loved the cell phone bans in middle school!

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/education/dc-considers-cell-phone-ban-schools-classrooms-students/65-917071f8-6ebf-4389-a42f-c5c85e561f67