Irrational

On Sunday I mentioned “the intractable nature of the ‘cell phones in school’ conversation.” Let’s talk about that. 

Cell phones and the dominance of social media in teens’ lives is another factor in their difficulty to connect and make friends- - and a big one, I suspect. There was a time when I was hopeful that this “new technology” could be used as a springboard for research and all kinds of learning experiences in the classroom. I am less optimistic today. I can’t say unequivocally that they are a work of the Devil and should be banned but I do think kids are harmed and we could be doing a better job supporting them.

As an aside, I find it interesting how attitudes have changed in the years since cell phones were allowed in schools. At the beginning I saw more teachers trying to maintain an open mind and explore ways to use technology in the classroom, whereas parents were flat-out objecting. Now I see teachers practically begging to get the devices out of the classroom and it is parents demanding that they remain. “An Alarming Deficit”, Village Green/Town², March 22, 2023

What if I need to communicate with them? What if there’s a school shooting?

Yes, it’s true. I was very open minded about students having access to technology in school. I saw possibilities for new kinds of learning and I thought that it was important that we guide young people in how to safely and responsibly interact with the Internet and social media. What I didn’t understand was how social media thrives on manipulating dopamine and that our kids were now guinea pigs in a long term investment in making money from their clicks. 

If you talk to teachers they are keenly aware of how this has degraded both classroom learning and relationship building between students. It is not a question of upgrading their lessons to be more engaging than a game on a smart phone as one HCPSS Board member opined. It is the complete impossibility of competing with the influence of social media that demands continual interaction and response all through the day and often into the night. 

In a way, it’s a kind of a drug. Young people don’t have any kind of healthy immunity and, let’s be honest: many adults don’t, either. I’d love to say “let’s help them use this technology responsibly” but what we are seeing in schools is how smart phones contribute to bullying, instigating fights, sharing revenge porn, difficulty in paying attention and a disconnect from the joy of learning. 

And yet. 

What if I need to communicate with them? What if there’s a school shooting?

There you have it. As long as we as a nation allow school children to be at risk of mass murder in the classroom, many parents will be unwilling to let go of the one tangible lifeline they have to those children. 

I’ve heard some pretty convincing reasoning that suggests that students having access to cell phones during a mass shooting makes them and everyone around them less safe. What I haven’t heard is any acknowledgment that trying to get distraught parents to accept these rational arguments is completely unrealistic.

Every day we are asking parents to send the most precious part of themselves into a place where they may be slaughtered. We ask them to accept that our nation won’t pass the most basic of common sense gun laws to protect them. Adding insult to injury, we are quicker to offer “Stop the Bleed “ classes in school settings than we are to stop the access to the AR-15s that cause the bleeding.

And then we ask parents to be rational about student cellphones?

This is not rational.

It is not rational that we ask children to go to school, day after day, not knowing if today is The Day, while we ignore the negative impact that trauma will have on their potential for learning.

You can’t demand that people make rational choices when you are not giving them even one rational thing to hang on to. 

I do think we need to get smartphones out of classrooms. I completely support teachers who are asking for this change. But I cannot judge parents who look at each year’s death count rise and know it could be their child and there’s nothing they can do about it.

Village Green/Town² Comments