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France To Ban Mobile Phones In Schools (theguardian.com)
The French government is planning to ban students from using mobile phones in the country's primary, junior and middle schools. While children will be permitted to bring their phones to school, they will not be allowed to get them out at any time until they leave, even during breaks. The Guardian reports: Jean-Michel Blanquer, the French education minister, said the measure would come into effect from the start of the next school year in September 2018. It will apply to all pupils from the time they start school at age of six -- up to about 15 when they start secondary school. Blanquer said some education establishments already prohibited pupils from using their mobiles. "Sometimes you need a mobile for teaching reasons [...] for urgent situations, but their use has to be somehow controlled," he told RTL radio. The minister said the ban was also a "public health message to families," adding: "It's good that children are not too often, or even at all, in front of a screen before the age of seven." The French headteachers' union was skeptical that the ban could be enforced.
Right from the start, I was completely surprised that any school anywhere has ever allow them.
If the teacher sees a student using a cell phone, the phone gets confiscated and never returned. just think how much money their schools will make the first two weeks.
I predict that French schools will have a serious lack of empty toilets in the foreseeable future. And for a change, it's not because of the quality of the cafeteria lunch.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You had to have it on silent (not vibrate). If you got it out the teacher took until the end of class.
Why are old people always upset when 12-year-olds have access to the same communications tools that literally billions of people use every day. If old people don't want cell phones they shouldn't use cell phones. If old people don't like typewritten documents they should hand write their documents. Telling young people that they ought to be denied access to the basic tools of civilization "for their own good" reads like 60-year-old men being afraid of middle schoolers overthrowing the government at best, and straight up oppression at worst.
As a parent, I totally agree with this. My eight year old son is already asking about when he gets his own mobile phone. Some friends of him already have one! Insane! Kids at that age are not ready for the internet and communication like that. If they learn to communicate via digital devices instead of directly, they miss essential things like non-verbal communication. This will seriously affect them if you ask me.
I know I can't go around giving him a mobile phone when he goes to high school, otherwise he will be left out of a lot of social events. This nation wide ban removes the difficult discussion between schools and parents. I wish they would do this in my country too.
It doesn't have to be like this. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.
and also outlawed rude behavior, they'd really making a positive change. Then again, they'd loose a well know internationally recognized trait.
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It would be better to teach students the etiquette of modern communication.
For example, not to talk loudly and continuously over the telephone in public transport.
All other EU countries + the 16 federal states of Germany should follow.
"I need to be able to reach my child in an emergency!"
That's why they have an administrative office. You call there and they go contact your child if necessary. Worked just fine for 100 years. There is no educational value in allowing access to cell phones of any sort during the day. If there is an odd circumstance where a child really does need to carry their phone during class hours due to some special circumstance then the parent can arrange that through the school administration on a short term basis.
The blame lies more with smartphone-addicted parents than the school.
There is Truth in this. The basic question to ask is "what educational purpose is being fulfilled by allowing access to smartphones during school hours?" If there isn't one then there is no reason to allow them.
Kids at that age are not ready for the internet and communication like that.
That's quite plainly not true and I see hundreds of children almost daily that handle it just fine. What they are not ready for is UNSUPERVISED access to online communications. They are perfectly capable of handling it with a bit of guidance. Furthermore given how important the internet is and will continue to be, to withhold access to learning about such tools is actually likely harmful to them in the long run. I would argue that trying to nerf their world actually does more harm and I have seen that play out more than a few times.
If they learn to communicate via digital devices instead of directly, they miss essential things like non-verbal communication.
You talk about it as if it is just one or the other. Our job as parents is to make sure they can do both. I work with kids part time as a school staff member and they handle it just fine. These are kids that have grown up having smartphones basically their whole life. As long as the parent is involved it works out fine and if the parent isn't involved there are bigger problem than their use of a mobile device.
This will seriously affect them if you ask me.
Kids are more resilient than you give them credit for. That said I think that the French ban sounds like an excellent idea. Smartphones are nothing but a distraction during the school day. They can play with them as much as they want after school hours.
I predict that French schools will have a serious lack of empty toilets in the foreseeable future. And for a change, it's not because of the quality of the cafeteria lunch.
I think you may not be aware of how amazingly good the food is in French schools. Unlike in the US where we literally give prisoners better food than students which is just mind blowing.
Oh no, there's new technology we need a law to prevent any change of behavior. We must not adapt we need to ban the technology.
Yes, they need school rules so that kids listen and pay attention, but a government law ? really ?
Our county school system attempted to ban student possession of cell phones last year. Some telecom lobbyist threatened to sue, saying that the County did not have the right to regulate the use of cell phones, as it falls under the purvue of the FCC. It's a specious, even ridiculous argument. But, the school board folded like a cheap newspaper. That same lobbyist is also trying to have the county's ban on cell phone use while driving overturned.
I'm starting to wonder... if I could go back in time and prevent the Internet and Cell Phones from being invented, I'd probably do it. They are destroying our social fabric.
Schools should put up their own local cell tower that only routes to 911 or the head office if the call is detected to come from within the borders of the school property, unless it's a registered faculty phone number.
This is something that is possible to do, BTW, not just a pipe dream. It stops kids from wasting time on their phones in class, but still allows for emergency calls.
In the UK, some schools (including the one my children go to) ban phones altogether, some have no objection to them provided they are not causing distraction during lessons, while some have an intermediate position, which is probably best. For example, if my 12-year-old daughter stays late after school, when the school office is closed, which happens several times a week because both her parents work full-time, then I have no way to contact her and she has no way to contact me. There isn't a public payphone in the vicinity, as far as I know. So letting children at least keep a phone in their locker during the school day, which is what happens at some schools, might be a sensible policy. Though installing a payphone would be an obvious alternative. Also, one could allow non-smart phones, which is what you actually need in an emergency, and they are dirt-cheap, so you don't need to worry about them getting lost or stolen, and you only have to recharge them once a week.
Of course a child shouldn't be allowed to just whip their phone out at school during, unless it's actually part of the class. But you don't need a country-wide law for that, with no possibility of easily making exceptions where sensible. And you don't need to ban 15 year olds from learning phone use! You just need to back the teacher when they want to enforce rules about in class distractions.
Your experience as a child is not going to match what these children experience. There are no pay phones. And information is always going to be much more accessible. Your only hope parenting is to teach the child how to use the tech and the information wisely. There is no room for this backwards inbred bullshit.
Seriously what the fuck is wrong with you people? You're on a site that is "news for nerds" not "news for the almish". I would expect you have more than half a fucking brain when it comes to the use of technology.
Kids under 18 shouldn't even have phones other than ones tied to their parents' for the aforementioned emergencies. They also shouldn't have any access to social media in any way, shape, or form.
Schools should put up their own local cell tower that only routes to 911 or the head office if the call is detected to come from within the borders of the school property, unless it's a registered faculty phone number.
That wouldn't work for almost countless reasons. First, it's a very Big Brother sort of solution which would almost certainly draw lawsuits if they tried to implement it. Second, schools are not just for children. I'm on staff at my local school part time. We have community education activities going on all the time which involve people who aren't students. We have parents, guardians, grandparents and other relatives visiting for various reasons. Third, it is quite an unreasonable administrative burden to try to get everyone who might possibly visit a school to register their phone with a school. Not to mention all the privacy issues, problems with first responders, and similar issues. When I coach sports teams I visit other schools during the school day fairly often and it would be EXTREMELY annoying to have to register my phone with every school I visit.
No, it is MUCH simple to just forbid the students from taking a phone out of their locker during the school day. Schools are already well equipped to do that and it is FAR less costly. Schools have enough to do without trying to monitor the comings and goings of the phones for the whole community.
This is something that is possible to do, BTW, not just a pipe dream. It stops kids from wasting time on their phones in class, but still allows for emergency calls.
Possible? In theory but not in practice. And children do NOT "need" to receive "emergency calls" during the school day. That is a made up bogus excuse. If there is an emergency the parents can call the administrative offices and they will take care of it. It has worked fine for the better part of 100 years.
>. First, it's a very Big Brother sort of solution which would almost certainly draw lawsuits if they tried to implement it.
So will not having the ability to call 911 if someone's hurting kids.
> Third, it is quite an unreasonable administrative burden to try to get everyone who might possibly visit a school to register their phone with a school.
People still have to check in when entering a school (they're generally not free and open to the public). An extra few seconds for tradesmen to put their phone number into the system isn't a huge burden.
>When I coach sports teams I visit other schools during the school day fairly often and it would be EXTREMELY annoying to have to register my phone with every school I visit.
Boo hoo. Live without your electronic leash for a bit. If you're really that important, people will reach you through the school's office.
>No, it is MUCH simple to just forbid the students from taking a phone out of their locker during the school day.
Forbid all you like, kids don't listen. Are you going to search their bags at the start of every class? That sounds like it would cost a lot of instruction time, and probably cause privacy-based lawsuits.
>And children do NOT "need" to receive "emergency calls" during the school day. That is a made up bogus excuse.
SEND, not receive. As should have been obvious when my previous post indicated the cell system would route 911 calls for all phones.
> If there is an emergency the parents can call the administrative offices and they will take care of it.
Funny how that's good enough for the kids, but you want special treatment for your convenience. Try leading by example.
Because kids don't know how to smuggle things that are "banned" into schools.
So far I think the situation is that schools can't handle cell phone storage during school hours.
What are you talking about? They have lockers. Use them. For schools that don't have lockers either forbid them to bring the phones or come up with a secure box to store them during the day.
Imagine the liability issues.
What liability issues? This is made up nonsense. There simply aren't any and it's trivial to work out exceptions to the policy where reasonable. People already sue schools for idiotic reasons so it's hardly worth worrying about a few irrational parents making up new reasons to be irrational. If there is an emergency contact the administrative office or the teacher directly. If the teachers have phones (and most do) then there is no reason to worry about emergencies.
Plus it's a hell of a lot of work.
Schools are very well equipped to monitor students using forbidden items during the school day. They've been doing it literally since there were schools. They already do this so it's really nothing new at all.
Then kids can't have a phone on them on their way to school or home, which is probably a bad idea.
Bullshit. I never had a cell phone as a child and yet somehow I survived the fiery apocalypse. I reject the entire premise of this argument. Children younger than driving age are in most locations by definition with an adult the entire time they are transiting to/from school. Why would they need a phone? Children old enough to drive can leave the phone in the car or in their locker during the day. If a parent is worried about their child's safety, a phone isn't going to solve that problem. The parent should be with the child if they are worried about them.
In Italy mobile phones are banned since 2012...
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
France companies going to ban cell phone at work. With government like this, who need slavery.
The comment section really separates the special snowflakes from the self-sufficient.
Travail, Famille, Patrie!
I did an (admittedly informal) survey in my university classes a couple of times. I asked my students if they thought cell phones should be banned in schools. The majority voted yes, they should be banned. About fifteen minutes later, I asked if powerful hand-held computers should be allowed in class. Again, the majority voted yes, they should be allowed. The problem is, it's the same question phrased two different ways. "Cell phone" is actually a misnomer these days. We have powerful hand-held computers that we carry with us, and they could be used more effectively in schools if people realised that, but they don't normally think of it.
Hell where I live a phone without credit will receive but not make calls
What country is that? Where I live, the sender pays half the minute rate (unless the sender has minutes remaining or an unmetered plan) and the receiver pays half the minute rate (unless the receiver has minutes remaining or an unmetered plan), as both sides of the call are using channel-minutes on a tower. Having never lived in France, I have no experience with its mobile phone service pricing model.
Friend teaches at an "underperforming" high school in the US. He explained to me one of the few times he can send a kid to the VP office is if they have a phone out and are actively using and refuse to give it to him for the duration of class. He sends student to VP. The VP asks the student for the phone. Student usually refuses. VP sends student back to class with phone. Zero punishment. Actually an incentive. Student gets to avoid class for 15 or 20 minutes.
The kids know they run the place, and the parents back it up. I think France is smart to do this. I know from what he has told me I'd last like 1 minute as a teacher before I was fired. I just have to laugh when I see all these comments that think they know how schools work. One neighbor down the street from another country is appalled at US schools. She assigns homework to her kids because the schools refuse.
Because countries that allow homeschooling have refused the parents' application for asylum or a work visa.
Well then you should work harder to pay for it then!
To what does "it" refer? If by "it" you mean a work visa, that fails because countries impose conditions on admitting guest workers other than pure ability to pay. If by "it" you mean homeschooling, payment doesn't change the fact that it's a crime in many countries. By "it" did you mean the entire cost of establishing an accredited private school?
I took a group of Millennials (14-17) on a wilderness hike in 2015 and discovered they had such an attachment to their phones that they'd rather carry them than other important gear like a knife or extra flashlight batteries. Sad/interesting to watch them go through withdrawal over the 10 days on the trail with no cell coverage and no AC outlets. Solar was a little help but no coverage was a killer for these kids. They continually checked their mostly dead and disconnected devices looking for signs of life.
If their French counterparts are like the US Millennials, expect some serious withdrawal symptoms.
Organization? You must be joking..
People still have to check in when entering a school (they're generally not free and open to the public). An extra few seconds for tradesmen to put their phone number into the system isn't a huge burden.
Yes it is. Because their phone is not functional until they check it in. Furthermore there is no compelling reason to ban the phones of anyone who is not a student. It only serves to inconvenience people who don't need to be inconvenienced. Not to mention it is dangerous. There would be no way to not block people who are merely driving by the school. Radio towers don't respect property lines. How do you plan to ensure the cell tower does not affect those who are 1 foot off school grounds?
Boo hoo. Live without your electronic leash for a bit. If you're really that important, people will reach you through the school's office.
Grow up. Electronic leash? It's a tool you moron. Some of us actually have work to do that involves using a phone. I have to communicate with dozens of parents on a real time basis all the time. No I'm not willing to go to the hassle of registering my phone at every school I ever visit to solve a non problem that they can solve simply by actually monitoring the students.
SEND, not receive.
Sigh. We have teachers for that. And staff. And parents. You seriously think we need every child in the school to have a phone so on the vanishingly small chance there isn't any adult around at a school they can dial 911 in the unlikely event of an emergency? Thank goodness you aren't in charge of any actual schools because your critical thinking skills are lacking.
Funny how that's good enough for the kids, but you want special treatment for your convenience. Try leading by example.
I'm not the child being educated you imbecile. The purported purpose of banning kids from having cell phones is so they'll actually have to pay attention in school. A technologically enforced ban of all phones is a stupid, expensive, unnecessary, and dangerous idea.
The problem is, that would be hell to enforce. You would literally need teachers walking up and down the halls monitoring this. Teachers shouldn't be doing that.
No it would not. Teachers already are monitoring for contraband. If they see it being used then there are consequences. Have you ever actually been around kids? Teachers don't walk around covering their eyes and ears. And if a kid manages to sneak in a phone, so what? It just not that big a deal.
Here's why a whitelist system wouldn't work:
1) No way to ensure that it only functions on school grounds and doesn't affect those off campus
2) It creates all sorts of privacy problems and legal minefields that would have to be litigated. Not to mention that it probably violates all sorts of FCC regs.
3) Schools should not have the legal authority to control communications of people who aren't minors attending that school or employees of same.
4) It would be an expensive nightmare to administer.
5) It is much cheaper to have a simply no-phones policy and to enforce it. Similar to a ban on other contraband like tobacco.
6) This idiotic solution tries to make perfect the enemy of good. Keeping the phones out of the classrooms is good enough. If a few slip through so what?
7) It requires cooperation of the wireless providers who have zero profit motive create such a needlessly draconian system.
8) Such a system would almost certainly get abused.
That right there is a bullshit argument. Test it out with some other then/now comparison to see for yourself, e.g.
Hardly. Your attempts at bringing in other unrelated arguments that I did not make is a false equivalency.
That depends on what the concerns are, doesn't it? Obviously, a phone doesn't grant the holder invulnerability, but it can certainly ameliorate some common worries (like not knowing where the child is, not being able to reach them, etc....)
Not really no. If the parent is that concerned then they can accompany the child. If they need to reach them at school then they can do so through the administration of the school. If they are concerned about the transit to/from then accompany them. I reject the premise of your argument. If a parent thinks a phone is a security blanket then they are not actually considering the facts of the situation clearly.
And yet, most parents can't be with a school-age child 24/7. If only there was a way to ameliorate some common worries that parents often have.
A phone won't fix actual problems and I'm not going to pretend that it will.
Personally, I'm not a fan of giving kids a phone before middle school age or so, but if the child is walking to and from school before that, I can see the reasoning for it.
I disagree. The phone is just security theater. It does essentially nothing to actually keep a child safe in all but the rarest of circumstances.
You might be surprised, but there are many modern countries where kids walk to school alone for a mile or several.
And they routinely do so without the aid of a phone. What exactly is your point?
In not so recent past(relatively speaking), parents would have to call the school office/secretary to contact their kids, and the kids would have to use a payphone(or the office phone in case of emergencies)... WE SURVIVED.
No one will ever tell you that more distractions in school is an advantage.
As long at the curriculum is created at a level where a whole internet's worth of knowledge is not required, then there is no reason for kids to use them.
Also if the cyber bullies can't be online in school time, then school time will be less stressful for the bullies targets. Many(most?) cyberbullies are too scared to confront their targets in person.
It would be better to teach students the etiquette of modern communication.
Isn’t that the parents' job? Should schools do that too?
>> not to talk loudly and continuously over the telephone in public transport.
good luck with that since most adults do not do this.
They should all be forced to wear yellow long sleeve peter pan collaredblouses, knicker bockers, and be in constant fear of the nun with the paddle!
While I agree that if kids are using it to socialize (FB) or message notes or just play games during the school hour, then they should not be doing that, they should be learning. Just as in work, people should be working. If kids are learning the bad habit now, just wait till they get into a work environment.
On the other hand,
1- We should use technology in a good way to teach and learn, just throwing a computer in the classroom is not the way to go.
2 - Kids today are not the kids of pass days, their attention span is shorter, there is just too much media out there, and its a connected world and everyone wants to be in on it all the time. We should try to use that in a positive way, or adjust how classes are thought.
3 - Those that want to learn will learn and those that want to click will be in a click, has always been that way. You can force a kid to learn something they are not interested in learning. Using technology can help make it a more excited learning environment.
Switch to an iPod like device with apps like Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, iMessage, etc.. Problem solved.
..A GREAT idea. Maybe the little bastards will actually LEARN something now.
In 1997, I wasn't allowed to have my mobile phone out at school.