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The important thing in the article is that this ban concerns phone usage during breaks and lunch. Phones in classes were already forbidden long time ago.

by yoz-y 9y ago

noobermin 9y ago
I think that is a step too far. Imagine they banned books during breaks. That's how far this is. I get you want to not have them use them during class but that is the general policing class behavior that teachers are supposed to do. Why ban them during breaks when it doesn't hurt their studies?
- ArmandGrillet 9y ago
  Mobile phones get stolen and can take pictures/videos that can then be used for bullying others, it's quite different from a book. I don't have an opinion regarding this new law but those are the arguments I heard in the news. It will still be allowed to use mobile phones for "emergencies" from what I read, i.e. a teacher is not here and a child wants to contact a parent regarding that.
  - isostatic 9y ago
    > It will still be allowed to use mobile phones for "emergencies" from what I read, i.e. a teacher is not here and a child wants to contact a parent regarding that. If that happened in my son's school (he's 5) I would expect one of the pupils to simply wander into another classroom, or reception. Given the number of parents who work full time I'm not sure what good a child phoning their parent is going to be. In the highly unlikely event I need to contact my child, I will phone the school and they will pass on a message.
- cspags 9y ago
  It may not hurt their studies, but perhaps their social skills. I recently stayed at a hostel, and when I first walked in I noticed how in the common area almost every single person was alone on their phone. It made me long for the pre-smartphone days in which I imagine travelers were forced to socialize with each other. While school lunch is a slightly different situation, I think it still applies that without phones kids will be forced to communicate more directly with each other.
  - AndrewDucker 9y ago
    "It made me long for the pre-smartphone days in which I imagine travelers were forced to socialize with each other." Having lived through the horrors of the pre-smartphone days, I can tell you that this wasn't the case. See, for instance: https://i.pinimg.com/474x/1a/a1/7b/1aa17b28aad6df78a2e1d2016205376a--newspaper-smartphone.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/474x/1a/a1/7b/1aa17b28aad6df78a2e1d2016... or https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/540/1*U36hBj8i-C7JJJxS4MP2HQ.jpeg https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/540/1*U36hBj8i-C7JJJxS4M...
    - tehwalrus 9y ago
      Hmm, that's not the comparison here. Wanderers, travellers (especially those in youth hostels) were often doing that activity in part to meet a wide variety of people, something they were less able to do staying in one place at that time. (Edit: I should mention that I'm citing my Dad in my head here, who is an embarrassingly social creature in situations where I would never strike up a conversation. He spent a lot of time travelling around Europe in the 70s staying at youth hostels, e.g. in his university vacations.) I believe this need is fulfilled by things like Tumblr now, where there are close nit communities centred around specific (often odd) interests and identities, who are vastly geographically spread. The same could be said to an extent for other social networks too, of course, including this website :)
    - jasonkester 9y ago
      No, he's right. Until about 10 years ago, meeting people was an integral part of travel. You'd be essentially cut off from your friends back home (apart from maybe a daily email session), so you made new friends wherever you went. You'd go down to the common area of the hostel (or the beach bar near your bungalow in SE Asia), and strike up a conversation with pretty much anybody, since everybody there was traveling as well. Now I can, sadly, verify that backpackers spend their common-area time on their phones, going about their usual business with their normal "friends". With the only difference being that they're now trying to upload photos that will make those friends jealous enough to leave a like. I think I liked it better before.
- dazc 9y ago
  'why ban them during breaks...' School isn't just about academic study, it's also where you make friends and learn how to interact with others. I think mobile phones get in the way of this by enabling kids to just communicate within already established cliques?
  - raverbashing 9y ago
    > by enabling kids to just communicate within already established cliques? Trust me, they already do that for the most part.
  - watwut 9y ago
    Yeah, let's make it even harder for lonely kids. I mean seriosly, why do highly social people have so little empathy for introverted ones?
    - dazc 9y ago
      As a former introverted kid, I never liked being forced into situations where I might have to actually talk to some other person, especially of the opposite sex. But, I can look back and be grateful there were no smartphones to hide behind, otherwise there are some hang-ups I might never have gotten over.
      - watwut 9y ago
        Honestly, I don't get where special hung on talking with opposite gender comes from. Never had that problem, maybe because I was never in strictly single sex peer group. But something that would allow me to hide a bit in elementary scool would be welcome. I did not learned anything about communication when forced into those situations, I was just lonely and miserable.
        dazc 9y ago
        'I don't get where special hung on talking with opposite gender comes from.' Growing up with 3 sisters and learning at an early age what mental cruelty is.
- Angostura 9y ago
  > Imagine they banned books during breaks. That's how far this is. I don't see the analogy really. A closer analogy would be 'imagine if they banned portable games consoles'.
  - noobermin 9y ago
    Books are a means of entertainment. How is it any different than one class is electronic and another isn't?
- test1235 9y ago
  >Why ban them during breaks If it was me, I'd do it for practicality. It's easier for a wholesale ban than try to implement some system where you allow a forbidden item for some, but not all of the time. Even keeping track of which phone belongs to who for every kid in a school would be more than I would be arsed to deal with.
andrewla 9y ago
Forbidden, maybe, though the article mentions it only as school policy. I don't think there was a government-issued ban on phones in classes, or at the very least the article does not support this assertion. > [Jean-Michel Blanquer, the French education minister] said some education establishments already prohibited pupils from using their mobiles. > At another school, Mathilde, 12, said: “It’s ridiculous. At my school, we don’t use them in class or during recess, so what’s the problem? If anyone’s caught using one in the toilets or at lunchtime, the phones are confiscated immediately and the person is given detention.” This is certainly an important aspect of the ban, but also relevant is that this is a centrally-issued (unfunded) mandate rather than policy set on a school or district basis.

The important thing in the article is that this ban concerns phone usage during breaks and lunch. Phones in classes were already forbidden long time ago.

by yoz-y 9y ago

The important thing in the article is that this ban concerns phone usage during breaks and lunch. Phones in classes were already forbidden long time ago.

noobermin 9y ago

I think that is a step too far. Imagine they banned books during breaks. That's how far this is. I get you want to not have them use them during class but that is the general policing class behavior that teachers are supposed to do. Why ban them during breaks when it doesn't hurt their studies?

ArmandGrillet 9y ago
Mobile phones get stolen and can take pictures/videos that can then be used for bullying others, it's quite different from a book. I don't have an opinion regarding this new law but those are the arguments I heard in the news. It will still be allowed to use mobile phones for "emergencies" from what I read, i.e. a teacher is not here and a child wants to contact a parent regarding that.
- isostatic 9y ago
  > It will still be allowed to use mobile phones for "emergencies" from what I read, i.e. a teacher is not here and a child wants to contact a parent regarding that. If that happened in my son's school (he's 5) I would expect one of the pupils to simply wander into another classroom, or reception. Given the number of parents who work full time I'm not sure what good a child phoning their parent is going to be. In the highly unlikely event I need to contact my child, I will phone the school and they will pass on a message.
cspags 9y ago
It may not hurt their studies, but perhaps their social skills. I recently stayed at a hostel, and when I first walked in I noticed how in the common area almost every single person was alone on their phone. It made me long for the pre-smartphone days in which I imagine travelers were forced to socialize with each other. While school lunch is a slightly different situation, I think it still applies that without phones kids will be forced to communicate more directly with each other.
- AndrewDucker 9y ago
  "It made me long for the pre-smartphone days in which I imagine travelers were forced to socialize with each other." Having lived through the horrors of the pre-smartphone days, I can tell you that this wasn't the case. See, for instance: https://i.pinimg.com/474x/1a/a1/7b/1aa17b28aad6df78a2e1d2016205376a--newspaper-smartphone.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/474x/1a/a1/7b/1aa17b28aad6df78a2e1d2016... or https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/540/1*U36hBj8i-C7JJJxS4MP2HQ.jpeg https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/540/1*U36hBj8i-C7JJJxS4M...
  - tehwalrus 9y ago
    Hmm, that's not the comparison here. Wanderers, travellers (especially those in youth hostels) were often doing that activity in part to meet a wide variety of people, something they were less able to do staying in one place at that time. (Edit: I should mention that I'm citing my Dad in my head here, who is an embarrassingly social creature in situations where I would never strike up a conversation. He spent a lot of time travelling around Europe in the 70s staying at youth hostels, e.g. in his university vacations.) I believe this need is fulfilled by things like Tumblr now, where there are close nit communities centred around specific (often odd) interests and identities, who are vastly geographically spread. The same could be said to an extent for other social networks too, of course, including this website :)
  - jasonkester 9y ago
    No, he's right. Until about 10 years ago, meeting people was an integral part of travel. You'd be essentially cut off from your friends back home (apart from maybe a daily email session), so you made new friends wherever you went. You'd go down to the common area of the hostel (or the beach bar near your bungalow in SE Asia), and strike up a conversation with pretty much anybody, since everybody there was traveling as well. Now I can, sadly, verify that backpackers spend their common-area time on their phones, going about their usual business with their normal "friends". With the only difference being that they're now trying to upload photos that will make those friends jealous enough to leave a like. I think I liked it better before.
dazc 9y ago
'why ban them during breaks...' School isn't just about academic study, it's also where you make friends and learn how to interact with others. I think mobile phones get in the way of this by enabling kids to just communicate within already established cliques?
- raverbashing 9y ago
  > by enabling kids to just communicate within already established cliques? Trust me, they already do that for the most part.
- watwut 9y ago
  Yeah, let's make it even harder for lonely kids. I mean seriosly, why do highly social people have so little empathy for introverted ones?
  - dazc 9y ago
    As a former introverted kid, I never liked being forced into situations where I might have to actually talk to some other person, especially of the opposite sex. But, I can look back and be grateful there were no smartphones to hide behind, otherwise there are some hang-ups I might never have gotten over.
    - watwut 9y ago
      Honestly, I don't get where special hung on talking with opposite gender comes from. Never had that problem, maybe because I was never in strictly single sex peer group. But something that would allow me to hide a bit in elementary scool would be welcome. I did not learned anything about communication when forced into those situations, I was just lonely and miserable.
      - dazc 9y ago
        'I don't get where special hung on talking with opposite gender comes from.' Growing up with 3 sisters and learning at an early age what mental cruelty is.
Angostura 9y ago
> Imagine they banned books during breaks. That's how far this is. I don't see the analogy really. A closer analogy would be 'imagine if they banned portable games consoles'.
- noobermin 9y ago
  Books are a means of entertainment. How is it any different than one class is electronic and another isn't?
test1235 9y ago
>Why ban them during breaks If it was me, I'd do it for practicality. It's easier for a wholesale ban than try to implement some system where you allow a forbidden item for some, but not all of the time. Even keeping track of which phone belongs to who for every kid in a school would be more than I would be arsed to deal with.

andrewla 9y ago

Forbidden, maybe, though the article mentions it only as school policy. I don't think there was a government-issued ban on phones in classes, or at the very least the article does not support this assertion. > [Jean-Michel Blanquer, the French education minister] said some education establishments already prohibited pupils from using their mobiles. > At another school, Mathilde, 12, said: “It’s ridiculous. At my school, we don’t use them in class or during recess, so what’s the problem? If anyone’s caught using one in the toilets or at lunchtime, the phones are confiscated immediately and the person is given detention.” This is certainly an important aspect of the ban, but also relevant is that this is a centrally-issued (unfunded) mandate rather than policy set on a school or district basis.