The Debate (Week 14); Should Students Be Allowed to Use Phones in School: Yes or No?

Smart phones are an integral part of the modern day. People who don't happen to own a smart phone are actually looked down on. I mean these people are not even connected. Yes, this is the attitude of, I would say, a majority of people. I of course am 62 years old, I have lived far longer without a smart phone than with one. I do find a phone very useful and also a good ally when I am in very boring situations, like for example a long bus travel, I no longer have to carry a book.

But for young people it goes way beyond that, a young guy without a smart phone finds him or herself completely lost. It is their gateway to fun, knowledge in fact everything. I think they can't lead a meaningful life without this gadget. I do find this troubling because I think it is a turning down of reality. Be that as it may the question is if I consider that students should be allowed a phone at school.

Well first of all let me tell you something, when I was in school, yes I am an old fart and we like to remember the times when we thought we were cool. Well in those days the only contraption we had access to was a manual calculator, they were allowed in class but were not too liked by teachers. Math teachers of course. and they were definitely not allowed for exams.

So OK, I think personally that phones smart phones should not be allowed in schools at all. I mean first of all they will distract students, they make research a thing of the past, you just have to ask the darned phone, and I imagine during exams there is a constant back and forth of messages asking for answers. I do not think this is good for the brain of students, they should use them more.

Now don't take me wrong, as I said, i too was a student, so I know young people are always on the lookout for the easy way out, and they are very good at it, they are incredibly creative, and if they can get away with it good for them. But my no to phones is based mainly on it takes too much time from students, even athletic endeavors are forgotten, and education is no longer needed, the phone has the answers. Sadly, if I had any say in this I would completely prohibit the access of these apparatus in school.

So parents want phones as tracking devices to know where their children are? Fine give the kids phones with tracking devices and no other uses. I mean, where I went to secondary school there were no phones in the whole town period, and yet here I am.