[kimbernator]

>Students can be trusted to obey a simple "no phones in class" rule.

I'm honestly not educated on the topic right now since I haven't been in school for 15 years and have some time left before my daughter starts, but is this rule really not in place in most schools? How could any school justify not having this rule at the very least, regardless of how well-enforced it is?

I always assumed it was a lack of enforcement due to understaffing that was the problem

[DANmode]

It’s a lack of enforcement due to unruly, unparented children,

in most regions’ school districts.

[kimbernator]

I tend to avoid placing the blame on individuals (parents in this case) when the problem being described is so widespread. People act as rationally as they can, so if it's that common, it's a systemic failure. Scolding the masses is a fool's errand.

[DANmode]

> People act as rationally as they can

We’re talking about underdeveloped minds in the face of excruciating social and physiological pressure.

I’m pretty sure the systemic failure is, in part, that parents are, en masse, abdicating their responsibilities of guiding their children through the minefield of modern technology, from iPad kids on up.

The reasons why vary - and include being addicted themselves.

I’d love to hear any anecdotal evidence to the contrary - not just a dismissal, or being called a fool.

[kelseyfrog]

The society that supports phoneless children no longer exists. It stopped sometime in the 2010s. Taking away phones doesn't bring that infrastructure back, it culminates in something new and worse.

One example is the tension between childrens' independence and roaming and the now lack of payphones. Taking away a cell phone doesn't bring back payphones. It either reduces a child's independence or puts them in more dangerous situations. What it doesn't do is return them back to a time when a couple of quarters could call mom or dad.

[DANmode]

Who said take phones away?

No, teach them some motherfucking respect,

so they know, instinctually, that when someone’s talking to them for 30-60 minutes they should pocket or bag it.

[hollerith]

Teaching them respect sounds a lot harder than just confiscating their phones.

[kelseyfrog]

Sorry, but childrens' lack of respect was lamented in Antiquity. I don't see that changing in the next 5 years if it hasn't changed in the last 2000.