• scottywh@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I don’t understand how a state governor can “introduce” a bill.

    Isn’t that the legislature’s job?

  • yildolw@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Ontario has now passed two different bills banning cell phones in school. It’s a great distraction from actual problems. I fully expect we’ll pass a third in a few years if our provincial government is re-elected

    Teachers don’t need a sheet of paper at a legislature somewhere to take away cellphones. They can do that already, and if the kids disobey a legislature won’t help. I assume no one is expecting kids to go to prison for having a cellphone

    • z00s@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      The key thing is that teachers can ban phones in their individual classrooms if the school permits it.

      There are many schools in which the senior admin don’t institute phone bans (you’d be surprised how common this is).

      Legislating it helps maintain consistency and parity between schools nation wide, which is important as it’s a quality of education issue, so the policy should be consistent across all schools.

      I’m not from North America, but the situation is similar across most western democracies.

  • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    smartphones are a distraction in schools. The teachers shouldn’t have them either, tbh

  • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Good idea. Its of the main reason why education today is faltering. Allowing too many screen in the class room is simply a bad idea. These kids have the no ability to stay focused in any way. They way they learn guarantees many will never learn to read without a screen and the internet. I see it often in my current job.

  • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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    5 months ago

    they could have incorporated similar tech to teach children better. or we could figure out why class is so boring when the subjects can be so interesting. kids clearly want and would clearly benefit from the integration of this tech.

    but nooo lets ban phones instead because we want things to stay like they were 40 years ago and is not much work.

  • ichbinjasokreativ@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I’m torn on this. Allow them and let natural selection take its course, or force students to pay attention, which I would’ve hated as a kid.

  • pulaskiwasright@lemmy.ml
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    5 months ago

    This so government overreach. Let the teachers and school admin decide. There no need to get the state government involved.

    • QuarterSwede@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      At a certain age/level I agree. However, they aren’t needed or helpful in basic low level grades where you’re teaching the framework to build upon.

  • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 months ago

    What a creep. Instead of making NYC safer for kids by reducing cars, she’s making school more of an authoritarian prison.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Is she going to ban hats next? Put in a law telling students exactly how they can decorate their lockers?

    Surely there are more pressing things to be legislated?

    • Soulcreator@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      As someone who went through the NY public school system many years ago, I can confirm hats were/are hard banned. Like unless it was for religious reasons you really couldn’t even think about putting something on your head.

      Cell phones were also banned in my youth but I guess times have changed?

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Oh yes, but by the school. Not the law. We have elected positions specifically for figuring out how schools should teach children. Also top down negative mandates about clothes are already borderline abuses of power. We want laws preventing admins from going overboard, not mega bans in state law.

        • meliaesc@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          The research showing the impact of cellphones during class outweighs an individual’s opinion. This has nothing to do with fashion and can’t be compared to hats or locker decorations.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            The research showing the impact of cellphones during class outweighs an individual’s opinion.

            More broadly, any kind of in-class interruption can hurt academic performance. This same logic has been applied to dress codes, speech constraints (most famously Bong Hits for Jesus), and behavioral edicts.

            But this wack-a-mole strategy of prohibitions isn’t championed because it is particularly effective. There’s always some new distraction in the classroom you can chase after next. The strategy is championed because its cheap. Banning cell phones has very little budgeted cost as a public policy. By contrast, reducing class sizes and providing more hands-on learning opportunities and hiring/retaining highly educated teachers has an enormous price tag.

            Nevermind which strategy has a proven history of increased student performance. We just need to keep locking enormous pools of children in tiny windowless classrooms and throwing increasingly byzantine standardized tests at them, then chasing any student who produces a “distraction” from this mind-numbing educational policy.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            It’s no different than sleeping through class or just doodling and ignoring the teacher. If the kid can’t not have their phone out then they get banished to the back of the class. If they play noise they get sent to the office, just like disruptive kids in every generation.