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.
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.