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French School Students To Be Banned From Using Mobile Phones (theguardian.com)
The lower house of parliament in France has passed what it called a "detox" law for a younger generation increasingly addicted to screens. As a result, French school students will be banned from using mobile phones anywhere on school grounds starting in September. The Guardian reports: The new law bans phone-use by children in school playgrounds, at breaktimes and anywhere on school premises. Legislation passed in 2010 already states children should not use phones in class. During a parliamentary debate, lawmakers from Macron's La Republique En Marche party said banning phones in schools meant all children now had a legal "right to disconnect" from digital pressures during their school day. Some in Macron's party had initially sought to go even further, arguing that adults should set an example and the the ban should be extended to all staff in schools, making teachers surrender their phones on arrival each morning. But Macron's education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, brushed this aside, saying it wasn't necessary to extend the ban to teachers and staff.
to pass messages in class.
At least in some areas, the French have been ahead of the curve. Children have no need for cell phones during lesson time. Or anytime during the school day.
The French have also banned burqas and other primitive tribal Halloween costumes. The French are starting to get things right, unlike the Germans and Swedes who enjoy being raped and humiliated by foreign invaders.
Sweden is the very definition of a "Soy Boy" and of course Germany has become a nation of "Sitzpinklers".
I pass about 8 school grounds (covering all age groups) on the way to work every day for over a decade. I remember it was always kids playing sports, on the swings, running around, etc. The last 5 years it's mostly sitting around and staring at phones.
I'm so thankful I wasn't raised in this generation.
They're also a distraction in lectures/classes -- you retain a lot more if you're taking notes on paper and not browsing the Internet. Honestly, this should extend to all electronic devices like laptops and tablets unless there's an accommodation for a disability.
This is just so the cops have less to go on (he said she said only) of what the illegals are up too.
students will be banned from using mobile phones
...
a legal "right to disconnect"
Being forced to do something isn't a "right", unless you live in Oceania
Because 'Freedom' to be a jerk seems to be written in the Constitution....
My daughter's school had a water main break & flooding. They canceled school in the middle of the day. Her ability to call me was a godsend!
Mind you, her phone stays in her locker all day. She can't use it in classes or during lunch. But when we need to coordinate after-school activities, having a phone available for texting or calls is a godsend!
I wonder if it applies only to primary school or to secondary school as well. The measure would be mostly relevant in secondary school.
I read the article and while it was informative, I still came away wondering why this needed to be law at all. I don't know much about French bureaucracy, but couldn't this be accomplished with a strong recommendation? Some kind of policy change? It seems like using a hammer on an ant.
Friend teaches in texas. Kids use them in class here.
At my daughter's school, all students put their phones in a basket as they enter the classroom and collect them as they leave. This is a small private school, so I don't know how well this would go over in a larger public institution....
Face it. The human has kinda gone berserk over the smart phone and apps. Simply observe, what is.
I realize 'tech' is interesting, valuable, a big part of our economy. The apps came from human beings brains though and maybe some of these appety apps are in all brains by default and we don't need to app as much.
Brravo! Increasingly he French have been ahead of the curve. Children have no need for cell phones during lesson time. Or anytime during the school day.
The French have also banned burqas and other primitive tribal Halloween costumes. The French are starting to get things right, unlike the Germans and Swedes who enjoy being raped and humiliated by foreign invaders.
Sweden is the very definition of a "Soy Boy" and of course Germany has become a nation of "Sitzpinklers".
If you got a phone...
[($)]
I know you're out there! But I'm not one of them.
In the US, we can't ban mobile phones from schools because then how would students be able to tell their parents goodbye when they're hiding in a closet from a member of the well-regulated militia?
You are welcome on my lawn.
have to pass their exams and tests on merit.
Got to study more for your professionnel, technologique, général, scientifique, économique et social curriculum for real in the future.
Hours of study. Learning equations, facts, how to think within in a set time. Rather than what site to look up that has the needed facts on Napoleons successful campaigns.
The happy decade of glowing instant networked support is over.
The only skill an entire generation had was how to use the internet.
With academic changes like this France will soon be back as an academic super power.
Think of the future innovations in hydropneumatic car design and bridge building. In the improved quality of Ada code used to fly rockets.
All due to a better quality of graduates who passed their tests by learning and having the skills to study.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Sorry, but how is this new? At what point did schools START to allow you to use devices in class or school?! When I was a student, you werenâ(TM)t allowed to bring a gameboy, Walkman, radio, cell, or anything else to school and definitely not in class. It was a sure way to get it confiscated by the school.
They're also a distraction in lectures/classes -- you retain a lot more if you're taking notes on paper and not browsing the Internet.
IDK, in many of the classes I've been in I would probably have learned more if I spent the class Googling the topic instead of taking notes.
Once again people who actually study are forced to pay for the sins of those who cannot.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
As in a lex legis right. That right may not be the *student* right. It seems counter intuitive but some right are imposed on the whole as a restriction to protect people. e.g. the right of school until you are 16 , would probably not being recognized as a right by the kids, rather as an imposition, on their freedom, but it is definitively a right.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Wouldn't it be a whole lot smarter to teach the kids how to have access to their phones but not to use it? - Because that's how the world is outside the school...
A straight-out ban teaches nothing and only encourages students to find workarounds and similar.
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
My daughter's school had a water main break & flooding. They canceled school in the middle of the day. Her ability to call me was a godsend!
Do you suffer from the delusion that that sort of thing never happened prior to mobile phones being widely available? Here is a hint. The SCHOOL called you instead. I know, right? You might actually have to talk to an adult!
Schools now can very easily send a blast message out to all parents via text or email. They also maintain call lists and other people have phones too. Your child would have survived just fine and worst case would have been bored for a few hours. Schools are well equipped to deal with this sort of thing.
But when we need to coordinate after-school activities, having a phone available for texting or calls is a godsend!
No it has become a crutch. It is not necessary. When I was school age I had no problem coordinating after school activities with my parents and I didn't get a mobile phone until I was 26. Your argument is specious.
That's so when the French branch of Boca Haram shows up to kidnap girls, they won't be able to call for help.
Phones should remain in their locker during school hours.
Should graphing calculators also "remain in their locker during school hours"? If not, why should phones used to run a graphing calculator app "remain in their locker during school hours"?
At my daughter's high school, any student whose phone rings in class has to get up in front of the class and dance The Macarena. This is a surprisingly effective deterrent.
Until you get to the showoff with six different remixes of "Macarena" on his phone, including the one that sounds like it's straight out of Mortal Kombat ("La Mezcla Guerrillera by Fangoria") and the one that sounds like almost a mash-up with "Unbelievable" by EMF ("Bass Bumpers Remix").
Source: Macarena Non Stop
throwing a football into the field
hey stupid, its france, they dont throw in football, they kick.
Until someone kicks the ball across the sideline. Then it's just as AC said: throwing a football into the field.
During a parliamentary debate, lawmakers from Macron's La Republique En Marche party said banning phones in schools meant all children now had a legal "right to disconnect" from digital pressures during their school day.
Sort of like my right to not kill people in public? Seriously, 'right to disconnect' is totally the wrong choice of words. How the hell did 'banning phones' morph into 'right to disconnect'? Even for a euphemism, that's a pretty serious stretch.
There's been a ban on phones ever since some kids showed some other kids some content which was not suitable no matter how liberal of mind you are...
So, total ban on phones, my kids sometimes needs to carry one for their after school activities that they go to straight after school, and they are semi paranoid about anyone finding out about it,... Even though it's just an old slider.
Anyway, any phone seen in a child's hands will be confiscated. Not just until class is out, but until one of the parents comes to pick it up.
Indeed, my children's primary school is entirely phone free.
In case you wonder, all parents I've spoken with about this are happy about this status. And, this is in Switzerland.
aRTee
I clearly remember, although I am not able to track the reference right now, of an ancient roman text that went somehow this way:
It was during the wars of Cleopatre. The scene depicted a war field, with one of Cleopatre generals receiving orders, reading them, then turning to apply them.
In any classical movie you can imagine the picture : general receives sealed package, unseals, reads, and now on to the next action scene, nothing special to be seen here.
Then, the actual roman text: written by the man dedicated to this, a clerk which you'd call today the embedded war reporter, or something like that.
And that's where it goes wild : our 'reporter' actually turns extraordinarily haggard when seeing this, and his text expands at length.
Thing is, the general read *silently*. And, that's the first time our 'reporter' sees this. In his life. Despite the fact he himself is a clerc.
What he is describing is not the prelude of yet another romanic battle. At all.
It is a change in human mind and thinking. Romans, and then us, were on the verge of *thinking differently* -by the fact one, from then on, could read silently.
Maybe, without Cleopatre, generations of commuters wouldn't anything to read during hours. The word 'education' would have a different meaning. Would you, yes you here, be reading this very text aloud? Really? Slowly?
The connected generation is just one such switch. Many have told us about the Gutenberg revolution, etc. Silent reading is another one less known. Connected people is yet another. All come with trashing various things, some *very* regrettable, and, clearly, some *irresistible* and significant too.
This switch to connected people is now a thing of the past, of the recent history at best.
My main concern today is rather, what will AI bring, and delete, in our everyday life.
Not just jobs, I mean : which parts of our minds are going to change again, in my grandchildren.
Herve S.