Cell Phones in School

When pondering the question if cell phones should be aloud in school or not I was completely torn between the two sides. I can see why people feel both ways about the this situation in our school but its a problem that needs to be fixed as soon as possible. A lot of students feel that because they own the cell phone it is their right to have it and use it when you want. As a lot of teachers see it as it is there time when the student is in their classroom and they should have to pay attention to what happening without the distraction of their phone. While debating this issue I decided to think more of the future for the kids. They are gonna have to be able to make there own choices the rest of their life at their jobs with their cell phones in hand the same at school. Though I do think that phones are a huge distraction still so I think we need to come up with a new universal policy form cell phones in every class that is different from what we have. 

Our school has been struggling now for a while with cell phones issues in a lot of classrooms. I note that this is a problem but I think that it should be up to the student choice when they use it or not. I understand that the for some students just have their phone sitting out on their desk that it is actually less tempting than having to sneakily check it over and over during the period to see if anything is on it. The students should be about to hold there our responsibility within reason during class time. After high school, college and onto jobs they are going to have make there own choices.  You could be on your phone on the job if you really wanted to but if you were constantly on it on inappropriate times you obviously would not succeed in that job you are doing. Whether you were to get fired or just get in trouble for getting no work done at all. They are going to have to make there own choices in the future on things like that so we might as well start now. If the student wants to learn and pay attention then they will know when is the right and wrong time to be on there phone and when the cell phone is getting in the way of their learning or if it is that they can catch up easily enough that it doesn't matter. Each student is different in learning speed and ways and they should be able to figure that out sooner than later. The only exception to this would be when they are taking quizzes and tests. Because we would be so lenient on having cell phones out at any other times if a student were to have their phone out at this time, test or quizzes, then they would have an automatic punishment no questions asked.  We can decide on the punishment whether it detention or time after school but I think it needs to be a policy that is reinforced throughout the school and can all mostly agree is a reasonable consequence.

I realize that yes this could impact our school in a negative way. That they are still young and a lot of them are not evening thinking or worried about their futures yet. This could make a lot of grades go down and our school reputation of excellent students and intelligence. Thats why we're should only use this as a trial and if it is effecting us a huge amount negatively then we will go back to our original plan until we think of something else. There are lots of recent studies out there right now talking about how you can not actually multitask but can just switch back and worth extremely fast which means if students are on their phone then it will be harder for them to focus on both what they are learning and what's on their phone. So we will have to trust them with their own responsibilities which is a risk but I am willing to take it and hopefully make the student more pleased. 

In conclusion to this idea if it doesn't work then we will have to think of a new idea but I am hoping that we can trust our students enough that they will see that their future is in their hands and it is now their choice like it is the rest of their life. I believe in this school and the kids at it enough to take this new step. I hope that you can see both sides of the argument but understand why I think that this is our best choice right now with all the technology out there. I also hope both students and teachers see the fairness in the new step that I think we should take.