By my count, schools are currently working through their fourth attempt at banning cell phones. Kids, not teachers, of course.
We tried when the devices could only make calls and send texts around the turn of the century. And then a couple of times after smartphones got powerful and popular.
Last week was the start of a new school year here in the overly-large school district, along with most of the others in Northern Virginia. The rest of the DC area began this week.
All of a sudden, everywhere you look, people want to ban smartphones in schools. At least that’s what the adults want.
When it comes to major decisions related to public education, we hardly ever ask the kids themselves about how and why to do stuff like this.
The Education Secretary in the United Kingdom, Gillian Keegan, wants head teachers (aka principals) in the country to “ban pupils from using mobile phones during the entire school day”.
Didn’t we already try that? Like more than ten years ago?