The Use of Phones in School

The rise of technology in America has severely impacted the moral compass of teens. This issue is due to the rise of phone usage throughout school systems. There are differing points of views as to whether students should/shouldn’t be allowed to have phones during school hours. These bipolar views are mainly due to results in behavior and personality. Joe Mecca, a writer, presents an abundance of different ideas in why students should be able to utilize their phones during school hours. Another source said by Suzy cox, a writer, that has been studying this topic for merely a decade and she said, “the brains of the net generation seem to be developing more slowly them teens have been developing in previous years”. A teacher named Lisa Nielsen had a famous quote that really summarizes her point of view on this matter “we are preparing our students for life after school, we should allow them to use the tools they will be using when they get there”. This evidence might cause people to start to realize that cell phones can be a key factor for a teenager even in school for education purposes. Phones can or can’t help students immensely in school. Phones can teach responsibility or cause a distraction depending on how and when it is being used. The use of phones can either make or break education throughout the world.

Currently in the 21st century cell phones affect the core of children throughout the whole world. The reason is due to the new trends that cause students to be on there phones obsessively. There are various opinions as to whether students should utilize their phones during school hours. These various opinions are based on results of behavior and personality when the student is with their phone and without. There are many points that show if students should/shouldn’t have their phones which include emergency, responsibility, and communication.

Joe Mecca, a writer, presents reasons on why students should have the ability to utilize their phones during school hours. Students know they shouldn’t use their cell phones in school to play games or text their friends about the test they just took. Phones should be used responsibly and for educational purposes. Students could do research for science projects, or download something that provides extra information on one of the topics that they did that day. When needed, teachers could prevent cheating by making students put their phones on, “airplane mode” or any mode that will not allow them to send or receive any messages or use the Internet. Students can benefit from phones in a great way if students were able to use there phones during school.

Another reason that Joe Mecca stressed was the use of cell phones in case of emergency. Nowadays, schools get closed because sometimes they’re natural disasters or gunshots which have become so common in most American schools. Also, students face many predators while at school so it is beneficial to allow cell phones in schools. Maybe to reduce the distraction caused by these Cell phones, teachers can simply cap the time of using of cell phones in school. Students can call or text their parents if the school has closed because of a natural disaster or any other abrupt reason. By having their phones in school, it gives the student a big advantage in order to be safe and contact help if necessary.

Karaka Ramey, a writer, used many reasons to prove why cell phones should be allowed during school hours. Her best reason was that teachers and students can communicate through other phones. The easiest way students and teachers can communicate using cell phones can be by texting. Teachers can simply use group texting to communicate with students. Shy students will find it easier to communicate through cell phones rather than talking in person. Students can then build relationships with their teachers by texting and help them learn at a much better level. Not only will cell phones help students with school work but it will also help them form an educational relationship with their teacher.

Dr. Richard freed wrote an article that displayed many reasons why students shouldn’t have the privilege to utilize their phones. One of his main reasons were the students lack of responsibility and he/she will get sidetracked very easily. It’s not surprising that a recent study found that schools which don’t let the use of phones, experienced a sub sequential improvement in student averages. With researchers concluding that phones can have a negative impact on productivity through distraction. Study co-author Dr. Richard Murphy, reports, “Allowing phones into schools would be the most damaging to low-achieving and low-income students, exacerbating any existing learning inequalities.” Phones can damage innocent minds in ways that are unimaginable. That’s why phones should never be used during school hours.

Another reason that Dr. Richard freed really expressed is some may believe that children’s safety is improved if parents and students can reach one another by phone during the school day. However, in order to get a message from their parents, students WILL ALWAYS monitor their phones, even during class. Schools will protect student’s safety by having them keep their phones off in their backpacks from the beginning of school to the end. If parents or children need to contact one another, the school office should be used, A policy that has worked well for decades. People tend to repeatedly make this, “emergency use mistake” over and over again, and it must come to a close. Therefore, phones would be a major distraction that’s why it shouldn’t be used.

Students may feel the only way to communicate with the class or even their teacher is through text or social, media. Writer Erin Stewart stressed the lack of healthy relationships do to kids over using their cell phones. The use of cell phones has affected many students because there are in a situation, instead of trying to make a conversation they escape to their cell phone. Studies show that homework is interrupted and children become distracted when they get notifications on a chat, texts, or emails. Good communication is important because when students are adults looking for interviews, they won’t know the right communication, which can result in not receiving the job. Another key factor is kids are so focused on social networking on their phones that they spend less time on school work which causes them to receive lousy grades. Since the students have their phones it will side track them instead of focusing. That’s why there is no need for cell phones in school.

Communication between a student and a teacher on a cell phone is incorrect because parents won’t feel comfortable that their child is getting to close to a teacher and god forbid, could become too close to their teacher and lead to inappropriate actions. Phones can cause communication issues and lack of social skills in an abundance of different ways one may not expect. A student’s communication with there teacher is great in school but to text after hours can lead to something dangerous. Phones that are used during school will end up with horrifying affects later on.

At the end of the day it all depends on how cell phones are being used in school. As technology keeps on advancing, cell phones have almost become a vital point of students’ lives because they make communication easy. Cell phones are not bad or harmful as some educators can think, but the problem is that some students use them for wrong reasons and this makes them bad in school. Since most cell phones nowadays can access the internet, students tend to use them for selfish, harmful, and entertaining reasons while in the classroom, this creates distraction and it also affects that students’ grades. If a student can be responsible and trust worthy of using his/her phone they should be granted the privilege to have their phones in school, in order to make there learning more effective and more fun. But if students are showing lack of maturity then cell phones shouldn’t be allowed in school. Students control their own destiny when it comes to their cell phones.

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