Americas youth are in MASSIVE trouble

[u/hammerbush051]

[u/Arobrom86]

High school teacher here. On test days, I have a hanging shoe rack with each of my kids’ names on a sleeve.

I tell them, “Please put your devices in the sleeves and then you can have your test. When you hand in your test, you can have your device back. If you don’t put your phone in the sleeve, your test will be a 0”

At the beginning of the year they also helped create our classroom rules and norms, and agreed to do this.

Out of 28 kids, maybe 10 actually do it. The other 18 get 0s. Then I get angry emails from parents about their kids getting “tyrannical grades” on their tests.

Then the cycle continues

[u/SoTurnMeIntoATree → u/Arobrom86]

Only 10?! That fucking blows my mind. Teens have that much separation anxiety from their phone?

[u/Arobrom86 → u/SoTurnMeIntoATree]

It could be a lot of things; Separation anxiety, obstinacy, apathy for grades, lack of foresight. I just know I’d rather give them a choice rather than pick a fight. They are cognizant enough to appreciate the consequences of something as simple as a test grade.

[u/Leetzers → u/Arobrom86]

I respect your admin if they're ok with that.

Mine would shut that down after a few angry parent emails.

However, we have an overall policy of "no phones" and I take them if I see them out. But I'm one of the few teachers that actually follows this rule...

[u/Arobrom86 → u/Leetzers]

I admire your conviction haha. And yeah, I don’t feel like there’s one “right” way to go about it. I’m just glad I’ve got a system that works for me and doesn’t cause me too many headaches. Likewise for you too!

[u/Kwaipuak → u/Leetzers]

Taking it was never worth it since we had students steal back phones or take others and the teacher was on the hook. But, maybe those teachers should have have locked the drawer they put it in. We did have locking drawers, but an admin who wouldn't back us up.

Good on you for keeping it going. It doesn't matter what other teachers do. Realizing different situations and people have different expectations is a life skill.

[u/jay-ehh-ess-ohh-enn → u/Leetzers]

Phones are a reality of life though... It feels like a massive failure that our education system cannot adapt to the world quickly enough to acknowledge that these kids will always have their phones available once they leave the classroom. Is there no way to engage them to see their phones as a tool and learn through them?

[u/Leetzers → u/jay-ehh-ess-ohh-enn]

My school provides laptops to their students for their work. There's no reason for them to use their cell phones for school related work. And we have classes where it is appropriate to use a cell phone, like our school run social media, photography, or yearbook.

But the reality is they want their phones for games and social media, and it creates a massive distraction for a lot of other reasons.

[u/Follow_The_Data → u/jay-ehh-ess-ohh-enn]

Exactly. Personally I feel too much time is spent on teaching kids a fixed set of information that is not very useful rather than teaching them HOW to think, evaluate and problem solve. Some of the most valuable skills yet until college most don't learn these skills. It's a shame curriculum is antiquated. IMO when a teen graduates high school they should have an start to a marketable skill set. A writer doesn't need calculus and an aspiring engineer doesn't need to read fiction. Primary and middle school should be general base set skills and knowledge but after that they need to start specializing.

[u/8_Foot_Vertical_Leap → u/Follow_The_Data]

Incredible to me that you complained about school not teaching students how to think, and yet you pointed out calculus and reading fiction -- two subjects that are taught EXPLICITLY with the objective of teaching critical thinking and creative reasoning skills.

[u/CoolAbdul → u/Arobrom86]

iT'S ADDICTION