Beamer wrote on Sep 25, 2024, 15:18:
I think I mentioned it here before, but I am a member of my local Moms for Liberty Facebook group.

Well, this topic came up, because our state is talking about banning phones in classrooms. I would have expected the "think of the children and their education!" group to be in favor. Nope. Not by a longshot.

Their arguments were basically three-fold:

1) "If there's an emergency or a shooting, I need to be able to get in touch with my child!" This I kind of get, but if the emergency is on your end, you can reach them the same way we always did. If the emergency is a shooting, what good is the phone, really? This feels like a much larger issue we shouldn't be compromising education for

2) "My child needs their phone so they can record their teacher if the teacher starts trying to teach them the wrong thing or turn them trans." I mean, if you're convinced your child is going to be turned trans by this teacher, or otherwise trust the curriculum so little that you think your child needs a phone to record it, why are you sending your child there? This argument relies upon bad faith arguments from fear-mongerers and has no justification in reality

3) "The state can take my phone when they pay for my phone, but since I pay for it I decide when and where it can be used!" Ok, sure, moron. You also bought your kid their playstation, can they use it in English class? You bought them that hunting rifle, can they take it to gym class? This is easily the dumbest argument I've seen, with absolutely no connection to logic or reason and entirely about emotional outrage at the government telling them what to do, even though the government is always telling us what to do and that restrictions on what can be done where is a big part of what makes the US a successful nation.

How in the hell do you manage to deal with that in your Facebook feed without losing your gourd? I couldn’t handle it, you are more committed than I ever could be.

InsolentCow wrote on Sep 25, 2024, 20:30:

J wrote on Sep 25, 2024, 19:05:

InsolentCow wrote on Sep 25, 2024, 15:22:
People kept tripping over the cord when I brought my phone to school.

It was much harder to butt-dial though with the rotary.

But not impossible.

I needed this conversation today, thank you. Rotary butt dialing, if possible, should be an Olympic sport.

J wrote on Sep 25, 2024, 19:05:

InsolentCow wrote on Sep 25, 2024, 15:22:
People kept tripping over the cord when I brought my phone to school.

It was much harder to butt-dial though with the rotary.

But not impossible.

InsolentCow wrote on Sep 25, 2024, 15:22:
People kept tripping over the cord when I brought my phone to school.

It was much harder to butt-dial though with the rotary.

Beamer wrote on Sep 25, 2024, 15:18:
Their arguments were basically three-fold:

1) "If there's an emergency or a shooting, I need to be able to get in touch with my child!" This I kind of get, but if the emergency is on your end, you can reach them the same way we always did. If the emergency is a shooting, what good is the phone, really? This feels like a much larger issue we shouldn't be compromising education for

2) "My child needs their phone so they can record their teacher if the teacher starts trying to teach them the wrong thing or turn them trans." I mean, if you're convinced your child is going to be turned trans by this teacher, or otherwise trust the curriculum so little that you think your child needs a phone to record it, why are you sending your child there? This argument relies upon bad faith arguments from fear-mongerers and has no justification in reality

3) "The state can take my phone when they pay for my phone, but since I pay for it I decide when and where it can be used!" Ok, sure, moron. You also bought your kid their playstation, can they use it in English class? You bought them that hunting rifle, can they take it to gym class? This is easily the dumbest argument I've seen, with absolutely no connection to logic or reason and entirely about emotional outrage at the government telling them what to do, even though the government is always telling us what to do and that restrictions on what can be done where is a big part of what makes the US a successful nation.

That's some of the dumbest arguments I've ever heard.

1- We got by without it fine in the past during emergencies. And if you want to prevent shootings, there are plenty of other much more impactful regulations you need to look at first. *cough* Gun control *cough* and strictly anti-bullying environment and this super important to have zero tolerance for malignant expressions of the fight response, a vast majority of kids who commit shootings have been bullied and had their healthy fight response repressed to extremes at school ( or at home, but there's nothing the school can do about it ), unable to defend themselves healthily, that's how you get to extremes like shootings among many others.

2- Absolute conspiracy nuts bollocks.

3- You pretty much summed it up. Also bollocks.

People kept tripping over the cord when I brought my phone to school.

I think I mentioned it here before, but I am a member of my local Moms for Liberty Facebook group.

Well, this topic came up, because our state is talking about banning phones in classrooms. I would have expected the "think of the children and their education!" group to be in favor. Nope. Not by a longshot.

Their arguments were basically three-fold:

1) "If there's an emergency or a shooting, I need to be able to get in touch with my child!" This I kind of get, but if the emergency is on your end, you can reach them the same way we always did. If the emergency is a shooting, what good is the phone, really? This feels like a much larger issue we shouldn't be compromising education for

2) "My child needs their phone so they can record their teacher if the teacher starts trying to teach them the wrong thing or turn them trans." I mean, if you're convinced your child is going to be turned trans by this teacher, or otherwise trust the curriculum so little that you think your child needs a phone to record it, why are you sending your child there? This argument relies upon bad faith arguments from fear-mongerers and has no justification in reality

3) "The state can take my phone when they pay for my phone, but since I pay for it I decide when and where it can be used!" Ok, sure, moron. You also bought your kid their playstation, can they use it in English class? You bought them that hunting rifle, can they take it to gym class? This is easily the dumbest argument I've seen, with absolutely no connection to logic or reason and entirely about emotional outrage at the government telling them what to do, even though the government is always telling us what to do and that restrictions on what can be done where is a big part of what makes the US a successful nation.

I'm as baffled as you 2...

A smartphone is a toy for a kid up to high school ( unless emancipated and out of the house on their own like college and university students ), toys were confined to the locker back in my days and smartphones should also be, doubly so.

I'd allow checking for messages between classes at the locker only, and only calls for logistics with parents and relatives, calls confined at the locker too, no moving around with it, taking pics, anything of the sort, walking the corridors outside of the hours where you leave or come in is prohibited, and only in the backpack is allowed, not in their hand.

Smartphone is confined to the locker during lunch hours if the kid has to stay at school for lunch. Kid is only allowed to check messages and make calls when they go get their lunch and when they store the container in the locker after and only for a few minutes, no smartphones during lunch hours other than at the locker location and only for the few minutes necessary for messages and calls logistics.

At any violations it would be confiscated until the end of day with a reprimand.

If enough reprimands are registered ( 3 to 5 sounds fair ), that kid is henceforth banned from taking the smartphone to school altogether, they have to leave it at home, zero exceptions.

If that rule is disregarded, the smartphone is confiscated UNTIL THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR OR X-MAS's BREAK, whichever comes first, if it's x-mas's break and they return to school with it again after it, confiscated again until end of the school year.

Parents, and only parents, can appeal to the school to recover the phone before the end of the school year and only 1 appeal can be successful during a year. If afterwards the student brings it back at school, confiscated until the end of year without any more appeals possible.

Any other rules I would judge way too permissive for what is essentially a toy at that age.

Allowing only to check for messages and calls between classes is more than enough to coordinate with parents and relatives for logistics.

This comment was edited on Sep 25, 2024, 15:20.

Yes I'm a millennial so they didn't really exist, but it seems so ridiculous to me to ever have allowed grade school students to have phones in class.

Not sure why this was ever an option.