In California, a high school teacher complains that students watch Netflix on their phones during class. In Maryland, a chemistry teacher says students use gambling apps to place bets during the school day.
Around the country, educators say students routinely send Snapchat messages in class, listen to music and shop online, among countless other examples of how smartphones distract from teaching and learning.
The hold that phones have on adolescents in America today is well-documented, but teachers say parents are often not aware to what extent students use them inside the classroom. And increasingly, educators and experts are speaking with one voice on the question of how to handle it: Ban phones during classes.
The question is why students will watch Netflix instead of listening and learning. It wasn’t better in the past as they didn’t have a smartphone. The situation is different.
We live in a world in perpetual movement. The school is in a new situation. Tomorrow, the situation will change again and again.
What to do? We can go back to how we think it was in the past. But, it will never be. People and society changed. How we see the world around us changed.
Or, we can do what any government did in the past 30 years, putting money in schools and education. The school has to follow the change in the perception of the world by adapting their methods. Instead of 2x+2x=4x, you can learn 2 smartphones + 2 smartphones = 4 smartphones.
The other point is that we are in an ultra individual time. And, school can’t be like that. School is a common. You have to play in team. This need to build a relationship and confidence between teachers and students and between students. But, nobody gives the time and money to do so. Bullying is high for example and isn’t addressed properly.
It’s not that it was better before. It changed and we didn’t put the money so the school followed the perpetual change.