The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has signed a bill restricting the use of cell phones,smart watches and some tablets at school. Campuses must ban such items outright or store them in secure places each day where students may not reach them. Reactions to the bill are mixed as might be expected. As usual the Texas legislature is placing more and more rules and restrictions on schools.
The genie is already out of the bottle but I would nonetheless like to make a few comments about this latest attempt to keep Texas children safe that might actually place them in more danger. But first I would like to suggest that someone made a problem out of something that need not have been a worry.
As a Dean of Faculty I learned that teachers are quite good at maintaining the proper balance of discipline inside their classrooms. Cell phones have been around for quite some time now and the vast majority of educators are able to curtail their use without the assistance of a law that does not take its unintended consequences into account. An adept teacher has eyes in the back of the head and is able to catch students who attempt to engage in phone use during a lesson. It’s rather easy to spot the offenders and in most cases simply seizing the phone for the remainder of class nips the habit in the bud.
Preparing an engaging and interactive lesson does more to keep students involved and away from phones than a law. Too many restrictions on student behavior generally leads to lots of time spent and wasted on enforcement. Every teacher knows that there are not enough minutes in the school day to fall behind even a tiny bit. I can envision phones turning into a very big deal when they were not so before this bill.
Sure, there are teachers who let students get away with less than attentive behavior, but with guidance from peer facilitators, mentors, and administrators they can be shown methods for reducing inappropriate phone time. It seems a bit much to install a statewide mandate to a so called problem that does not exist everywhere. It also does not take into account some very good reasons for allowing the students to keep their phones.
Let’s face it. Regardless of what the governor may proclaim our schools are potentially dangerous places. We have had school shootings only miles from my home and the one in Uvalde where teachers and children were killed was epically tragic. These days parents use the phones as a way of tracking their children so that they are always aware of their locations. In addition the phones become lifelines in the terrible event that a school shooter actually enters a campus. Students and parents have the right and quite often the need to stay in touch. The modern world has created a beautiful tool that need not be banned or locked away but simply used only in proper ways and times.
Not long ago there was an occasion when an alert went out in one of my grandchildren’s school. My grandson was anxioud as he and his classmates were secured in a locked classroom wondering if there really was a danger on campus. He was able to let his mother know what was happening and that he was okay even though he admitted to feeling frightened. Talking with his mom kept him calm even though the talking was only via text.
The fact that smart watches were added to the mix is equally ridiculous. Some of those items are so advanced that they can track heartbeats, blood pressure and exercise. They too can serve as trackers for parents who worry about their children given the realities of today’s world. With heightened security warnings across the globe it hardly seems to be an appropriate time for taking what could be life saving technology away from our children and teens.
I rely on my phone and my smart watch but I am able to ignore them whenever I am tutoring or teaching and students are capable of that as well. It is understandable that they should be put away during tests but that is easy enough to accomplish without a statewide law.
For some reason our Texas legislators have really gone overboard in rulings for schools. Children will find copies of the Ten Commandments posted in all classrooms, Phones, tablets and smart watches will no longer be allowed but prayers will be okay. Books will be banned and the teaching of history will be made more formulaic. In the meantime immigrants run the risk of being seized at school events. It is as though our lawmakers do not trust parents or teachers to show their children how to behave properly. Because of a few bad apples everyone is going to be punished and required to conform. Somehow it does not seem to be an effective way to teach young people to be moral and safe. Uniformity has won the day and my experience in classrooms tells me that it is not going to be the best way of doing things.
Long ago we teachers had to learn how to best use computers and other technology. We fumbled a bit here and there but eventually got it right most of the time. We learned how to use them as a powerful learning tool. As such I suggest that we leave classroom management to the schools. It’s easy enough to find the outliers that don’t know what they are doing and then help them individually to improve their methods than to overhaul everyone for rather weak reasons. I sadly believe that the flaws in this law will soon become apparent to everyone. Our state should rethink this before it becomes the focus of schools rather than learning.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 