France to ban mobile phones in primary, junior and middle schools
TLDR: As a high school level teacher, this would be less of a problem if teachers had stronger enforcement powers. Since we often don&#x27;t - I would strongly favor a ban. If students need a computer, we have them available all day, every day.<p>As a high school level teacher, I appreciate the attitude that there are amazing opportunities for learning and skill development with computers. I agree with this wholeheartedly. That said, a majority of my students are addicted to social media (they are teenagers, after all) and <i>cannot</i> self moderate their attention and&#x2F;or behavior on this issue. They are not, generally, breaking their attention away from class for some other kind of educational outlet (for which I am already fairly lenient when appropriate). They are sending their friends snaps, plays both games, and texting.<p>Of course, using phones in class is already against school policy, but it will remain and issue until I am able to take a phone away from a student. At a prior school, this was explicitly against policy becuase it was considered a liability issue as phones are expensive personal property that the school
did not want to be responsible for them. Additionally, parents give minimal support and&#x2F;or flip out when it happens. Very few have the willingness to keep their student&#x27;s phone at home during the school day even when it is a known and acknowledged problem. Often, they simply don&#x27;t want to argue with their teen about it.<p>I believe that we - as a American culture - are still too enamoured with our smart phones to effectively acknowledge the potential negative effects they can have on our attention&#x2F;learning&#x2F;cognitive development.