cellphone should be restricted in school

No Cell Phone Restrictions in School At many schools, cell phones are a constant source of frustration for students and teachers alike. Some school policies require that students' cell phones are not allowed at school, and many students find such a long period of disconnectedness unbearable. Teachers, meanwhile, feel overwhelmed by the administration's mandate to report or confiscate any cell phones they see, when they might see a dozen of them in the halls during class change on any given day. Therefore the cell phone has instead become an incredibly impulsive object that frequently deepens or even creates the rifts that can so easily form between teachers and students. If that does not seem like a serious enough problem to you, consider the Public School Review's report that the City of New York's general ban on cell phones in public schools resulted in parents suing the city on the grounds of a student rights violation. In this debate, I will propose a nearly 180-degree turn: Students should be allowed full use of their cell phones during school hours. My value is education, which the public schools purport to be, after all, their raison d'ï¿½tre. Here is my three-point argument, which I will rebuild as necessary in the succeeding rounds: Teachers can help show that everything in life is not texting or talking. Understanding that when a teacher's cell phone is ringing she ignores it because she respects the students and the student might think that he wants to be like that. And when emergency calls occur during class what will happen. * * * Point 1 * * * The cell phone is an object that is completely legal to possess, and any school policy that treats it as especial contraband is likely to interfere more rather than less with the educational process. Yale Professor James P. Comer, M.D. summed up education most eloquently when he said, "No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship of mutual respect, teacher to student." Consider the students who struggle mightily to resist looking at their cell phones during a class period or those who surreptitiously look at their phones under their desks or jackets—does this struggle help or hurt their relationships with the teacher, whose class is the very obstacle to their cell phone gratification? Furthermore, how much mental effort is wasted on either anxiety or trying not to get caught while secretly having the phone out? * * * Point 2 * * * The education that takes place in our schools must contain an element of socialization—preparing us to conduct ourselves in a socially acceptable manner in the outside world—and barring a device that is today everywhere to the point of being virtually prosthetic strikes dead on arrival any possibility of teaching our students to use cell phones responsibly. Many teachers cannot go an entire school day without using their cell phones, whether to make after-work plans with friends and loved ones, to reschedule appointments, or even to check up on their own children who are in schools where cell phones are banned! Furthermore, most students know this, so an uncomfortable double standard is maintained while teachers are deprived of an opportunity to model for their student's mature usage of a cell phone. Imagine the student's reaction in a school with no cell phone restrictions: "Wow—Teacher got a call while she was helping me but she just let it ring. That was really considerate of her! I want to be like that." * * * Point 3 * * * Parents use cell phones as a way to communicate with their children during the school day, and no education can take place if a student is anxious about possible changes in the family schedule or, more likely, going to the restroom during class time to text his or her parent. Furthermore, education is a much smoother endeavor if parents and teachers are working together rather than at loggerheads. In an article in NEA Today, 21-year teaching veteran and previous National Board for Professional Teaching Standards committee member Gail Washburn responds to the argument that parents communicated just fine with their children before cell phones. She emphasizes that today we have more mothers working outside the home and more fathers commuting farther away to work, which inevitably results in more scheduling uncertainty and with it the need for flexibility—and frequent communication.