France Bans Smartphones in School (washingtonpost.com)
When French students return to school in September they'll have to leave one of their most prized possessions at home -- their smartphone. From a report: French lawmakers on Monday passed legislation banning students as old as 15 from bringing smartphones and tablets to school or having them turned off at least, according to the Agence France-Presse. Officials in support of the new rule described the policy as a way to shield children from addictive habits and to safeguard the sanctity of the classroom. "We know today that there is a phenomenon of screen addiction, the phenomenon of bad mobile phone use," education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer told French news channel BFMTV, according to CNN. "Our main role is to protect children and adolescents. It is a fundamental role of education, and this law allows it." The law, however, does make exceptions for educational use, extra-curricular actives and for students with disabilities, the AFP reports. French high schools can choose to impose a less stringent ban on Internet-connected devices.
Have these people set a foot in a school recently?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Oh wait, they are.
Much better to take notes on dead trees -- aside from the usual distractions, too easy to get sucked down a rabbit hole of searches about something which the professors said which you found interesting. Save the tablet/phone for after class.
If you can't detach for a few hours, you're addicted.
Symptom: Kids are on their phones.
Problem: Because school is designed by, and for, idiots, with no regard for biology or psychology. Every child is treated like a rote learning "I can absorb information while sitting in a chair while you spout off dry lists of facts while you scold me for not rigidly adhering to your desire for me to remain quiet and motionless."
There are plenty of ways to learn. Learning by doing (people who learn WAY more in the labs than the classes). People who learn through physical memorization (this magical thing called "dancer") and more.
If your kids aren't learning it's two reasons: 1 - Shitty parents. 2 - Shitty teaching. Kids are BIOLOGICALLY designed to be knowledge sponges--that's the entire purpose of growing up. So if you're not getting the desired result, it's because you designed "the system" wrong.
William Edwards Deming said "95% of line-level worker problems, are the direct result of top-level management decisions."
So here we are, trying to blame cellphones for being too distracting. But the question is, why the hell is school so boring that kids WANT to learn from their phones instead?
Ever been in a technical lab? Huge equipment, wires running everywhere. Cool sounds going off. Microscopes that let you see literally down to the atomic level. You think anyone (or at least the majority of kids) give two shits about a YouTube video or text message, when they could be, say, climbing on a tank? And learning how a tank works and hearing the engine roar to life?
America creates, innovates, builds. Europe bans, fines, taxes. Such a shame.
Where is the peer-reviewed, academically acclaimed study stating screen addiction is bad? I see lots of successful people, both socially and professionally, that have been addicts of technology for as long as basic school. I think this is another populist measure based on wanting to show the electorate "there's stuff being done and it is relevant", only it isn't.
Our main role is to protect children and adolescents. It is a fundamental role of education
Your role is to educate. Protecting children is not your role. You've subsumed that role so you can take more control over the youth and further drive the wedge of state between families. You've assigned yourself as judge, jury, and executioner with regards to whether or not children need to be protected, what they need to be protected from, and how they will be protected from it. The 60s hippies were right about one thing - public schools are nothing more than statist indoctrination camps.
Yeah, we didn't have smartphones, but we had hand held entertainment devices of various sorts.
Formal or informal, guess what, you didn't get to play with them in class, or essentially use them in school at all. If they were ubiquitous then the ban surely would have been formal.
In other news, kids at school are told to pay attention to the teacher.
Of course we're not talking about ALL French Students here...
There are many with Religious exceptions to any and all rules.
La France est finis, who cares anymore.
All our progress happened without all this new great stuff and we sure do not seem to be progressing forward in modern times...
Delaying gratification is a huge indicator of having a better life; simply forcing students to learn lessons along those lines will do them more good than most every other lesson. Waiting for their phone use alone is a great learning opportunity for them.
Studies and science will and have begun to back such policies; we are talking about big new changes and should be conservative about their use while waiting for the science to catch up. We ALREADY have studies showing IQ drops simply having their phone known to be within range distracts them EVEN if they know it is OFF!
We have preliminary stuff from many observations which will lead to studies showing that boredom is healthy and an important of child development.
We have studies already going on about the poor social skills and many of use non-millennial are noticing problems in the younger generation that are beyond the classic older generation complaints. Just 1 area: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
There is no need for school students to have a cell phone in school, period; let alone a smartphone. School is a place for learning and phones and tablets are a distraction.
Sacre bleu!
That's a thing they say, right?
In many schools in my area, the children are forbidden from using the phone during school hours. (Detention if the child is caught using the phone during school hours) However, after school they can use it. Also, many students ride their bike to school or their parents drive them.
Seems like students using the phone after school to let their parents know they're being delayed (my bike has a flat, come pick me up) or the parents are running late so that the other party isn't left waiting/worrying why there is a delay, is an appropriate use of the phone.
There, fixed that for you. You're welcome. Who do they think they can fool with this?
No teacher in France ever goes to prison for f-cking their pupils. France hosted Roman Polanski for years, after he escaped from a criminal conviction for drugging and anally raping a 13-year old in the USA. Only months ago, France's highest court agreed with the 'innocence' granted to a rapist who attacked a 13-year old in a park.
The reason for a smartphone ban in French schools is that video is the kind of evidence sheeple cannot ignore. And the powers that be in France want to protect the right of french men to rape children.
Of course it was France that actively assisted the muslim trade in r-pe slaves across the Middle East and North Africa thru to the 1960s (NINETEEN 60s) when the British had made an increasingly half-hearted attempt to end it. Even today the South of France hosts many Arab palaces where the Saudis and others can safely host their r-pe slave 'servants' without fear of interference. If one of these 'servants' escapes and raises a complaint, France immediately ships them back to Saud Arabia or wherever they are officially 'employed'.
PS ever wonder why ordinary schools still follow the insanely obsolete VICTORIAN design for 'universal education' when the world has, tech wise, moved so far on? 95% of what 95% of people do at school is a provable total waste of time. Schools for the sheeple are about social conditioning and NOT education.
Now turn it off and listen to what we think instead.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Protecting the sanctity of learning by cutting off the connection to all the known human knowledge? Idiots!
Cell phone contents...
5% - Collective wisdom of the world
95% - Collective idiocracy of the world
Turning it off in school to learn the difference - priceless
The true master realizes all things hold wisdom, even if negative wisdom to learn what not to do.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Study?
Could you explain further what you mean by this? Early in the school year, I would read ahead in the textbook between the end of the lecture and the end of the class period. But later in the school year, I have finished the textbook, and this is no longer effective.
Or walk around the school as a type of exercise?
In schools in most states of the United States, leaving the classroom during a class period without a hall pass would result in disciplinary action against the student for truancy. Do schools in France have different customs compared to schools in the United States with respect to under what conditions a teacher is willing to grant a hall pass?
prepare for the next class?
Could you explain further what you mean by "the next class"? Do you mean the next meeting of the same class, or the different class next period?
It's not that long time (5-10 minutes) to control yourself.
What prevents a teacher from finishing the lecture even earlier than that?
Glad that someone is doing something about this!
On the plus side, this will also result in fewer teens getting depressed.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Now turn it off and be respectful of the person in charge of the classroom. Yes, students are to be listening to their teachers and respecting the rules of the classroom.
It's disrespectful to have your phone out when someone is speaking to you, regardless of your age.
Do you take your phone out in the middle of a business meeting while your manager is talking to you? No? Then why the fuck is that acceptable in a classroom.
They're going to bring them anyway. I'm pretty sure most sane teachers probably already forbid using cell phones in the classroom. Just seems kind of pointless to me.