[2C64]

I remember getting special permission to carry a cell phone in school in 2002 because of my mom occasionally needing help at home due to a progressive illness. Only needed to use it once, thankfully, but I wonder if the schools will allow for similar circumstances and how much that's going to be exploited?

Given so many people had no problems plopping their kid in front of an iPad/Phone/etc. since birth, I doubt they'd have problems signing a permission slip for cell phone use in school.

[givemeethekeys]

Should an emergency arise, shouldn't the school be able to quickly locate the student and inform them? A call to the teacher in charge, the PA system.. "Jane Smith, please report to the principal's office."?

[rrr_oh_man]

But that would take perceived agency away from the helicopter Karen in charge. :-)

[SR2Z]

Or... maybe children benefit from the capabilities of phones and it's not the place for schools to fully take them away.

In class? Sure, zero tolerance.

But between classes and at lunch? What's a rationale that DOESN'T pretend like these kids aren't going to be connected 24/7 _outside_ of school?

On top of that, smartphones ARE the only computers that many people use these days. I think HN would agree that kids should have access to computers; I think there's an element of culture shock when folks here are reminded that the smartphone is still the device of the future.

That's without even bringing up ChatGPT, which anyone who went to high school can tell you, has been immediately adopted by lazy students and definitely changed the way that essays are written.

We live in a world of instantaneous communication and cheap, ubiquitous computaters. It hasn't made education less important, it's made it MORE important and highlighted which skills are uniquely human.

We should adapt our schools to reflect that instead of succumbing to "old man yells at cloud" syndrome.

[rrr_oh_man]

By this logic we should resume serving beer at school lunches again. :-)

[mensetmanusman]

School is class.

[throwaway22032]

The question I always have on these kinds of things is - what would we have done prior to cell phones?

What is stopping your mum from calling the school and having them pull you aside to let you know you are needed?

Am I that old that people have just forgotten what it was like when having a pager was like, a super rare thing for high end business folk?

[throwAGIway]

The question I always have... Do you really expect people to behave like it's 1980s? Nobody - not the teachers, not the kids, not the parents want that.

I went to school when mobile phones were just beginning to be a normal thing. It took just a year or two before the teachers were like "why the hell don't you just phone your mom yourself?" and "Miss, there is no need to involve us, just call your child and resolve it yourself".

I used to get pretty bad headaches, I just called my mom for permission to go home and went. It'd be much more painful if I had to chase a teacher and convince them they need to call my mom and tell her I need to go home.