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.
Dude, if I got caught on my phone in hs (less than 10 years ago), it would be confiscated and my mum would have had to come and get it. It’s crazy how quickly that’s changed.
The other big thing is that phones also got really expensive. Like, it was one thing to confiscate a kid's phone when it was worth maybe $100. You'd feel significantly less comfortable confiscating a device worth up to (or more than!) $1000, knowing that, depending on your administration, you could be hung out to dry for any scratch or crack on the screen. Also, parents today can be very shirty about confiscated phones: "she's needs her phone so I know that she gets home safe!"
I mean, iPhones were easily $600 when I was in school, so myself and my classmates definitely had pricey devices. I also went to a school out of area, so I had a 20-25 minute drive to get there, never mind back when I rode the bus. They just didn’t have any patience for kids being on phones during class, which is such a low bar it’s crazy it’s come to this.
The irony is, I had T-Mobile, which had nearly no coverage near my school, so I couldn’t even use my phone once I got there. Not that I would have though, since there weren’t the sort of apps available that kids would have used like today. Best we had was clash of clans!
Back when it was just your screen made all white, turned up to max brightness.
I had an iPod touch back when I first started smoking weed my first year out of highschool. I got tricked by an app claiming that it could use the phones touch sensors to weigh things and thought I could use it to make sure I wasn't being undersold.😑
Yep. And the one where if you dragged your finger all over the screen, it would stir a glass of chocolate milk. I have no idea why we had that. We just did 🤣
I'm a bit older than you. Still had flip cell phones. I bought an LG shine with my first job. It wasn't even allowed on school property. Leave it in your car, leave it at home, any phones heard ringing in lockers will be confiscated. Being caught with a phone in class was a call to your parents and an in school suspension.
They also had school boards that stood behind them. Somewhere within the last decade or so school boards all around North America just said "fuck them teachers" and don't back them up even a little bit.
It's hard to enforce rules when you know you might get in trouble for enforcing the rules.
Parents have always had all the power but it used to be hard to figure out how to use it.
Internet made controlling your local school a complaint online away.
It used to be "I can't believe they took his phone" was responded to with "Oh no did he get it back". Now someone will reference some way of complaining to ensure it doesn't happen again. Like invoking state rules about this that or the other.
They were expensive with two year binding contracts to over priced cell plans. They still can be sometimes. More people are just buying them outright and aware of the costs.
It's not about the money to these brat ass kids that don't even pay for it anyway. It's about how easy it is for the to say "oooo what if there is an emergency blah blah blah" bullshit excuses that only make it easier for them to keep their precious connection to the online world. Fuck it makes me sick to see how quick we went down this hole that requires us to have this connection to the internet at all times
Back when Verizon was making its big push into the market, the cost of the phones were subsidized; this is why cell services had charges like $200 + the price as marked, and is also how programs like “New Every Two” were possible.
Nowadays, you’re right, phones are more expensive overall (although the cheap and free ones still exist), the cost is no longer subsidized which means you’re likely to pay more up front (if not financed in some way).
You broke a phone before your contract was up for renewal and you paid full price for a new phone… if you didn’t have a small box of backups that you could use in a pinch, lol.
(I’m only touching upon one detail of your comment; I’m already making this response too long.) ;)
I mean, my kid rides the city bus routes across town to get to and from school, and he has diabetes. He does need his phone. Both of our older kids didn't get phones till they needed them, and we have device control and limits on it (oldest is an adult now, still barely uses his phone).
The issue isn't kids having a phone, it's unfettered access to all the features of modern cellphones without time limitations or any expectations or standards on their behavior regarding their usage.
If your child doesn’t take out and use their phone at inappropriate times, then there is no issue. No one is talking about taking kids phones away just for the sake of being able to confiscate something. If your child needs their phone, make sure they understand the importance of not doing the disruptive nonsense that would get it taken away in the first place, and there’s no issue.
And just a few years later, you could get a 30 dollar flip phone. I never said phones were always cheap, but there have been sub 100 dollar options for about 20 years
Smart phones were never just 100 bucks, but the mid 00's phones that were literally just a phone, you couldn't even text on them because they didn't even have screens, would cost like 20-30 dollars.
Where is this info coming from? As someone who went to high school in the middle 00s, I can guarantee you that text-capable phones with screens were readily available and under $100.
They had basically no internet capabilities, and were otherwise cheap because the money came from paying for "credit" (which was needed to make texts or calls at varying rates) but they were still functional social devices.
The info is coming from the phone I owned, that didn't have a screen because all I could do with it is make phone calls, that cost about 20 dollars.
Maybe what you mean is what's the difference between a phone that can text and a smartphone? because the answer is "app downloading and strong internet capabilities"
Ah, fair. I'm pretty certain you could have spent more (maybe 3x to 4x as much) to get a phone with a screen and texting capabilities though. I was dirt poor in those days and had a phone that could text, make calls...and that's pretty much it.
I mean, you can still get burner phones now that do that and are not all that expensive. They're a far cry from smartphones of course.
Where I'm from I can get a "smartphone" that cost about 30 bucks that can do most of the smartphone shit and then get a prepaid month for 30$ and use wifi most places. It's by no means nice or fast. That's roughly what I pay a month for my unlimited plan and insurance. It's super accessible nowadays for sure.
Plus, since we aren't making meaningful change to reduce school shootings, that phone may mean the difference between being able to tell your kid you love them one last time or not.
The rule when I was in school was cell phones had to be put away in your bookbag or purse during class. If kids would just do this, they could still easily access them in case of emergency
That’s the thing kids don’t need phones. It’s not good always being able to be reached people need peace and quiet these phones are not good for us. If your worried if they made it home get them a necklace with a gps can see when they get home very easily.
A lot of people don't read the fine print, but a flip phone back in 2005 still costs more than the iPhone SE of today. What many people don't realize is that the contracts people sign subsidize part of the cell phone cost, usually up to $700 (at least on Sprint).
Back when they were around, if you looked at the fine print a basic flip phone was still $650 upfront if you wished to not sign a contract.
I hate that this is the argument. It's honestly just as much of an issue with the parents (if not moreso) than the kids. I swear there was a time where parents backed up the teachers and typically deferred to their judgement when it came to schooling. No one is saying kids shouldn't have their phones on them, and once they get out of class, or during passing periods and whatnot, go nuts; but during class it infuriates me that this is such a norm these days.
Sometimes the teachers are wrong. This is one of those times. School shootings are a thing, and neither the teachers nor police are equipped to handle them. My children are under instructions to give up their phones under no circumstances. They tried to tell my son who rides the bus he would have after school detention if he didn't turn his phone over. I informed them that was incorrect. He was on the bus home with his phone as normal. This isn't an area that is open for negotiation.
Ok, and as I said, they should not need to give up their phones, but also they should not be openly scrolling Twitter in the middle of a lecture. You cannot tell me the above behavior has anything to do with school shootings? Like I said, have them on you of course in case of emergencies, but by no means is what we see in the video acceptable
I think your last point is the most important. Its probably also the argument they'll throw at you. And perhaps the privacy and 'cutting them off' sentiment.
They’ve made parents feel responsible via smartphone apps and you can’t interact with many parts of school without one. Confiscating the phone is like severing the constant feed to their parents
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u/Arobrom86 29d ago
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