Six years ago, as officials at the Netherlands’ Calvijn College began considering whether to ban phones from their schools, the idea left some students aghast.
“We were asked whether we thought we were living in the 1800s,” said Jan Bakker, the chair of the college, whose students range in age from 12 to 18 years.
While the majority backed the idea, about 20% of the parents, teachers and students surveyed were staunchly opposed. Some were parents who worried about not being able to get hold of their children during the day, while a handful of teachers argued it would be better to embrace new technologies rather than shun them.
Still, school officials pushed forward. “Walking through the corridors and the school yard, you would see all the children were on their smartphones. Conversations were missing, the table tennis tables were empty,” said Bakker. “Basically we were losing the social culture.”
20-25 years ago, phones in schools were a rare sight, and nobody died. My parents could live without knowing what was I doing in school until I got home.
Now it seems those parents need to set a surveillance system to know what their kids are doing 24/7.
Your parents are also able to contact the school directly if they really needed to get a hold of you, the reverse is often true as well.
and nothing has changed there…
you can still call your school, as weird as it may sound, and the even can call you back… and the children don’t need a 1000€ smartphone for that…
But then how will the kids be able to watch ads to get coins for games during class time