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Comment by julianlam | Hacker News Reader

> "Just take the phones away," said Gillian Henderson. > >"I don't think we need to sue anybody, that seems like a long, expensive process. Just take away their phones in class and give them back to them when they need them."

Tried, and failed. Even before these social media apps, school boards back in ~2006 (!!) already attempted to enact these bans.

They failed. Teachers don't want an additional item to enforce, and students are FANTASTIC at hiding them. Ask any millennial what it was like typing T9. We can probably still do it without looking.

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I think it works tremendously well to take phones away.

Let parents and students know that if you’re caught with a phone, it will be taken from you and not given back until the end of the year.

It’s literally that simple.

A fair number of parents throw a HUGE fit over phone confiscation, no matter how it’s communicated. And count of parents concerned by a policy doesn’t always determine whose voices are heard in school districts—free time is a factor. These sorts always seem to have lots of free time…

I might be ignorant about this but why would it be up to the parents ?

Isn’t it up to the school to ultimately decide?

Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Parents who get nasty enough eventually break down the level of caring by the administrators… it weight of cost of pursuing an action. Not dissimilar to working the refs.

I see, I remember that being a similar situation in my school. But in my experience it was good enough for 90% of the kids to stop using their phones. Cause most ppl’s parents were too busy working or sided with the school at the time

Presumably the school administrators would only implement such a policy after they know the supermajority of parents are on their side.

Parents can make things very unpleasant for administrators. Which means they can make things very unpleasant for teachers.

Plus, they (among others) vote for the school board, and may run for school board.

Usually in this case the parents throw a fit. Maybe school boards should sue the parents.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39852448 :D

Do you actively work in a classroom? As the earlier poster said — this can’t workably be “yet another thing” Teachers are expected to do.

Even if schools hired dedicated staff to police, remove, and redistribute phones it’d likely be ineffective.

Schools are hunting for solutions that need either Societal or Govermental led change.

I expect the wave of kids from internet native kids will be given access to social media at a much slower clip.

It's not "yet another thing" to get your classroom under control. That's step 1, before any other things can be accomplished.

Please go talk to a teacher, any teacher, in public schools. You’re drastically oversimplifying a complicated topic.

Most public school teachers I've interacted with are apathetic powerless bureaucrats. My experience in private school is different. We had corporal punishment and other severe punishments there, and teachers actually had control of their classrooms and could teach effectively.

My point isn't that teachers are to blame. I understand that the issue is systemic and requires support of the school, parents, and teachers. I just disagree that controlling the classroom is "yet another thing" for a teacher to worry about, when it is literally priority #1.

Yes, the problem is the lack of willingness on the part of school districts to enforce discipline (perhaps compounded by the fact that public schools are often hamstrung by policy in this way), and likely a similar failure on the part of parents.

Troublesome behavior in schoolchildren follow the power law strongly, where a single-digit percentage of kids are responsible for >90% of classroom disruptions. School districts should be empowered to ensure that the kids who are there to learn are able to do so.

Jamming signals is way easier in that regard, but I don’t know how effective it is in practice.

>Tried, and failed.

This may be an unpopular opinion in today's world, but if you can't effectively apply and enforce reasonable guardrails for the safety of the generation of kids you are helping to raise, then you are the problem. Who are the adults here, the corporations?

> This may be an unpopular opinion in today's world

Kids were swapping porn mags, smoking cigarettes and pot in the 70s and drinking underage back in the 30s. What "yesterday's world" are you talking about here?

Honestly i feel like those (except cigs) might be more healthy than phones. Those infractions you are talking about weren't happening 24/7 but in rare circumstances. All of them are forms of addiction.

The history of discipline in public education shows that the engagement of parents of teachers has changed drastically over time. Some kids doing bad things sometimes throughout history doesn't indicate otherwise.

In no sane world can you compare the percentage of kids engaging in social media with the likely 1% of children that owned porno mags in the 70s.

Your comment is completely disingenuous.

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