I hate that I can’t get into my car without making sure I have my cellphone with me.
I hate that I am so disorganized that even if I know I have my cellphone with me, I can’t find it in my overstuffed purse.
And, I especially hate that powerless feeling when I don’t know where my cellphone is, that I have to stop my life immediately to find it.
Many of us feel the same way because we have become so dependent, over the past 30 years or so, on these devices that started out simply as telephones and can now, literally, connect us to everything in the entire world that we need to know — and a lot of what we don’t.
And, if we have a good connection, it can do it in a matter of seconds.
As a member of a generation that grew up without such luxury, it’s still something of a revelation that I’ve become such a slave to my mobile phone. But to those of my children’s generation and younger, phones aren’t exotic things. They are part of the fabric of their daily lives, and that’s why it’s going to be so difficult for them to deal with New York’s new no-cellphones policy in the classroom.
The policy is necessary, though — just ask my husband, who is a substitute teacher (and who hates to be written about, by the way). But it comes with the territory, especially this one. He says not only can’t kids put their phones away, but they are now using AI to answer questions they are supposed to be answering themselves.
Not all kids, of course, but a lot of them. Under the new policy, students can’t bring their phones into the classroom, with a few exceptions, such as needing them to monitor their glucose levels or other medical needs. The phones stay in lockers because even having teachers order that phones be surrendered upon entrance to a class is unlikely to be enforced.
David said he spent about half of his classroom time telling kids to put their phones away and the other half telling them to sit down and do their work. The life of a sub isn’t easy.
Do you remember, if you are old like me, actually paying attention in class? We didn’t have the distraction of cellphones; we had to make our own distractions. Whether it was passing notes, using stage whispers, throwing pencils … but, we eventually settled down. Kids with phones in their hands can’t.
Parents will argue that kids need their phones for safety considerations. What if there’s a school shooter? How will parents reach their children? How will children call for help? There is some validity to that argument to be sure. So maybe the compromise goes back to the teacher collecting phones as kids come in and placing them in a box within sight, but not within reach, of their owners. Security offered; but, students have to cooperate and parents also have to agree not to call their kids and disturb them without a true emergency.
It’s the only way I see this working. You can’t make the same argument that we survived perfectly well in the classroom before cellphones, because even people who didn’t grow up with one now have to know where theirs is at all times — even if they have to wait to use it.
Louise Hoffman Broach is an editor and reporter at the Finger Lakes Times. Contact her at lbroach@fltimes.com or 315-789-3333, ext. 253.
