Parents send their children to school with cell phones in the hopes that the kids will use them to contact the parents in case of emergency, or if practice is running late, or if they're going home with a friend, and so forth. The reality is that children are using their phones to call or text message friends, and dare I say it, cheat on tests. A phone left in a bag and turned OFF is one thing but kids seem to have a compulsion to use the phone in class, a compulsion that the parents just don't seem to understand.
At my child's school, every classroom has a phone. School procedure is that if a parent needs to reach a child, the parent calls the office. If it is urgent, the office calls the classroom. If it is not an urgent matter, the school secretary delivers a note to the classroom or sends an email to the teacher. Disruption is minimal and teachers can do what they get paid to do. Needless to say, however, most teachers still end up routinely confiscating a cell phone from some student who just couldn't leave it alone.
Slashdot Mirror
Parents send their children to school with cell phones in the hopes that the kids will use them to contact the parents in case of emergency, or if practice is running late, or if they're going home with a friend, and so forth. The reality is that children are using their phones to call or text message friends, and dare I say it, cheat on tests. A phone left in a bag and turned OFF is one thing but kids seem to have a compulsion to use the phone in class, a compulsion that the parents just don't seem to understand. At my child's school, every classroom has a phone. School procedure is that if a parent needs to reach a child, the parent calls the office. If it is urgent, the office calls the classroom. If it is not an urgent matter, the school secretary delivers a note to the classroom or sends an email to the teacher. Disruption is minimal and teachers can do what they get paid to do. Needless to say, however, most teachers still end up routinely confiscating a cell phone from some student who just couldn't leave it alone.