this post was submitted on 21 May 2025
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NGL, it’s really f*cking depressing when you give students 30m to create something of their own imagination, and they do it in the first minute with chatGPT and spend the other 29m playing games the phone and asking to “go to the bathroom” whenever they notice someone in the hallway.
The excuses you hear when you do something so oppressive as to request they keep their phones in their own backpacks for the duration of the task.
I regularly advocate for banning phones from schools but people here in Lemmy (same on Reddit years ago) completely lose their shit with that idea, start talking how that'll leave them defenseless in an emergency, how it is torture, how they absolutely can't live without them
Not thirty years ago nobody had cellphones in school, they barely existed, and everything was fine, everyone was fine without and with cellphones I see so much shit going on. Yes, it's the Future, kids need cellphones, but they also need to learn to be without cellphone, and they need to learn responsible use.
honestly a few years ago I didn't agree with it, but now things are enshittifying so much that it really seems to be the better option now. it'll unfortunately bar even those from using their phones who would use it for other things than mindless scrolling, using ai chatbots and playing microtransaction and ad filled games, but for the whole class and the whole generation it would be better in the end.
Which age were you when you didn't agree and what age are you now? I also this changes drastically as a teen I wouldn't see why it would be bad but nowadays I do (while also everything just got worse and worse, not to glory my time was any better)
yeah, that's the reason I probably changed my mind, because it was not too long ago that I would fall under such a restriction, and I remember thinking about schools that do this that it is unfair, and wouldn't have wanted to be in such a school.
Outright banning them from schools is wrong imo, but if I had to put my phone in a locked box every class, I would've lived. I just think banning them outright is bad for needing to contact parents, especially for kids like me who had after school activities often.
My only issue I had with HS teachers were the ones who bitched about people having headphones/earbuds in during class. Obviously I don't have them in during instruction or group work as that would be disrespectful, but if you're not at the front of the room talking and we're doing individual work, I want to have my earbuds in. I had a study block teacher who was so fucking anal about phones and earbuds, when it is literally a fucking break class to do whatever the fuck you want/need to do.
I just really like having music or background noise while doing work.
EDIT: God this blew up.
Well first off, I DEFINITELY remember not being able to contact my parents while at elementary school because they had out state phone numbers, so unless they were at home, I literally couldn't contact them. Furthermore, if teachers get angry at kids simply going to the bathroom, you think they're going to let us ask them to call our parents? Hell no.
Also, how is putting earbuds in while someone ISN'T teaching disrespectful? If you're not lecturing at the moment, then I'm putting my earbuds in. I don't always need them to get work done, but I prefer to. It's especially great if the class is being noisy, as I can put my music on to drown out the outside conversations. There are 30+ year old people who didn't have phones growing up that like to play music while working.
Please remember, most of those who oppose the introduction of phones to schools are part of the gen who decided to introduce them to us and bought the damn phones for the kids.
I actually agree with this. If I have kids doing individual work in my class, I could care less if they’re using their phones or have headphones in as long as 1) they’re working, and 2) they’re willing to put it aside when I need their attention again. I’m actually much more productive with music on, so who am I to judge?
Many middle schoolers I work with have an ear bud in at all times, and as an ESL teacher my population of kids really needs to practice processing spoken English without that as a distraction. Hell, that applies to every kid.... This isn't an issue of somebody listening to music in the hallway or while studying, this is during class, during lecture, during group work, while writing essays, while reading...
Ok, well that's completely ridiculous.
Look, 25 years ago nobody had cell phones in school. Kids had just as many after school activities, this wasn't a problem. It was sometimes inconvenient, but not a problem. It's also worth remembering, many rooms in every high school have phones, you'll be able to use one if you need to.
I get wanting to have your phone throughout the day, I do. But on the other hand... no.
You mean like landlines teachers had at their desks?
I suppose that's fair.
Survivorship bias and privilege. We never had phones in our classrooms.
Yes indeed. You should ask your parents about the aunts and uncles you would have had if only smartphones had been invented 2 decades earlier. I am sure they will have tons of stories to tell /s.
I worked in a school in Asia that actually banned students from bringing their phones to school. One year there was an earthquake in the morning that caused all the trains to stop for half a day while they checked the rails. We were all on our way to the school, got stranded, and some had to walk for hours to get back home. The school got a few calls from parents and the policy was changed the very next week. Now students can bring their phones, but they need to be turned in at the front office when they arrive.
One girl forgot to do it once, so she put her phone her locker. Another earthquake set off the warning alarm system and her phone went off in the hallway. Later that day I saw her getting lectured hard by the staff and the poor thing was in tears. She was actually a good student, so it was weird seeing her in that scenario.
Anyway, I wouldn’t mind the idea of students handing in phones at the front desk, but I was allowed to pack a cd player, a Nokia, and a variety of other devices around my school as a kid. I don’t really see smartphones as being much different, so I don’t mind them being around just so long as students are using them in their own time.
I mean, I was in high school when the cell phones were largely flip phones and that one nokia brick that could probably survive being run over by a tank and at that point the rule was "nobody gives a shit if it's in your pocket/in your bag and on silent, but if I see it or if it's making loud disruptive noises from wherever you've got it it's going in my desk until the bell rings". That still seems a reasonable middle ground in my opinion. That way, it's still accessible enough in the event of an actual emergency but not usable otherwise.
Plenty of schools do that
I've practically never seen anyone over 19 who was opposed to this idea. It's obviously the right move. Phones don't belong in school.
If you want to get all fussy about the "danger" of being without a phone, they can be allowed to keep it in their lockers until the last bell rings. There's literally no down side to this and a whole lot of up sides.
I mean, you could probably solve this shit by restricting the types of phones used to dumb phones. Phones only capable of texting and calls. Perhaps some basic access to school websites and Wikipedia too. Everything else default blacklisted.
I was uninterested in school because nothing was ever done to make me interested, even at home.
Later in life I was diagnosed with ADHD and now I’m a software developer. Sadly school isn’t for everybody and I just thought I was stupid and lazy, it turns out I was fine I just needed the right help.
Edit: Votes don’t matter but I’d love to know the reasoning for the 5 downvotes on this. Like why don’t you put across your opposition.
100%, but sadly many people, myself included didn’t get that and actively grew up in terrible environments.
I guess that’s what happens when you mum is 18 when you’re born. You’re being raised by a kid that didn’t make the best choices and the cycle continues. Although I don’t and won’t have children.
This is why school should be empowered to do more as that place is literally the only place you’re learning how to be a person and get ready for life.
I saw my dad beat my mum up. Been in the house when he tried to drive the car into the house but got stuck in the privits.
I’ve seen my mum attack my dad with a frying pan and witness my tea be dunked on her head. Or my dad go to prison for drunk driving.
Spent my entire pre high school childhood sat in the back of a car as my mum would berate the different men in her life, to her best friend.
Spent the following years seeing my mum psychologically bully my dad and he would be sat down stairs crying at night.
Is it little wonder that when people grow up like this and with ADHD that they might be hard to reach in school and that they are withdrawn.
I want to say that life’s hard and I don’t blame my family for the shit I grew up because they were young and not ready for life themselves as they had shit lives too. We were fed, went on holidays, and were richer than most of my council estate (I grew up there too) friends, but we didn’t get stability, love, or encouragement which is sad.
Like this is the tip of the iceberg of what shit I’ve seen growing up or some of the fucked up shit they dragged me into, being the eldest. I have two younger brothers and we are all fucked up in different ways but I’m by far the worst (as society would say) in every metric like wages, progress in life etc.
Edit: Looking introspectively I am thinking I’ve got unresolved issues for all this shit to just come out my finger tips on Lemmy 😂
Edit: Reflecting on this a little more, it’s annoying when people like dude I replied to say it’s the parents job. Like no shit dude, but what do you do when the parent fails the child, just leave it at that and say to the kid sorry mate, but it’s your mums fault but good luck in life. It’s the same kind of thing where people say the parents should feed the child so the school doesn’t have to, this just leaves hungry fucking kids.
You, uh, might want to talk to someone a little more qualified than anonymous people on Lemmy.
Yeah I’m not really here for therapy, just needed to get that out I guess.
Clearly I do need to talk to someone, but that’s a scary thing and not cheap.
You are correct on both accounts.
Sending you good vibes and money for therapy (only half of the last sentence is true).
Good vibes is what makes life bearable so I appreciate those my friend.
I had great, loving parents who tried their best to get me interested in my education. It didn't matter. ADHD meant I was never going to be a good student.
Ngl. I bought a signal jammer for my wife to use in her classroom (after all, it said “for educational purposes only”) and the kids could never figure out why the signal sucked so bad in her classroom during class times. She never got caught using it and never had to worry about them being on their phones.
If there was an emergency, people would just call the front office and they could always reach her on the land line in the classroom.
The FCC hates this one simple trick
Violating federal laws is awesome, everyone should do it.
If it’s good enough for the President! /s
"Removed by mod" haha
Fuck YES (says a middle school teacher)
One proposed Florida law I actually agree with is: phones off during school - all of school, including between classes and recess. Possible exception for lunchtime. Definite exception for when the teacher is specifically using the phones as a fully engaged teaching tool, which should be no more than 20% of overall classroom time, but definitely could be used as a way to "grab attention."
I get wanting to be able to track little Ginny and make sure she got to school O.K. and know when to go meet the bus to pick her up.
There should definitely be "Cybersafety" education in our schools, and the phone as a teaching tool definitely makes sense there.
Having AI write the first draft of your assignment can be a good lesson too, but the remaining 28 minutes should be spent understanding and refining what the AI has given you.
I can't imagine dealing with a room full of kids, especially ones with phone addictions.
If your school is not supporting teachers with a cell phone policy you should try to find another place to teach and tell them exactly why when you leave.
Edit: this is also something your union should be pushing for. I'm surprised parents haven't demanded it.
Is there not a way to plan the assignment so that it's not doable in 1m with ChatGPT?
It’s possible, but it takes time and effort to prepare, and I’m not getting paid at home, so I’m reluctant to do it.
You could offer the students a choice: no AI and a 5 slide presentation, or allow AI but with a 15 slide presentation, then let them decide. AI makes work more efficient for us, so if we can be 3x more productive, I should expect 3x more product.
I taught an ESL group once. One of the girls, around 15-17, plastered a bunch of ChatGPT text on the slide and sat the whole period on her phone. When it was her group’s turn, she quickly realized the position she put herself in as she was now in at the front of the class trying to sound out a wall of high-level English words she’d never heard before. I gave her the standard score because, even though she failed the task, she tried really hard to read out all those difficult words and I thought that was probably more work than anyone else had done.
That is a tragic indictment on the state of your class. You are failing your students by refusing to give them failing marks for this shit.
I think she learned the lesson on her own on that one. No need to rub salt on the wound.
Furthermore, at their level, they already assume that they’re hopeless. I don’t want to reinforce that idea and discourage them from reproaching the subject later on. We’re talking about a lower vs mid elementary proficiency rating here, so no one’s life is changing.
I don't understand how you are not paid for planning time. Without providing that the school just makes their teachers glorified babysitters.
• Require students to cite their sources
• Require students to show their working
• Ask students questions related to the process of a given task during class
• For things like media analysis, require them to do it with a pencil and paper without the use of computers where possible
• Treat the use of LLMs as an act of academic plagiarism
All of these are things that schools should already be doing holy shit
Yes, this absolutely. It should have always been like this but there is no other option now with AI.
Only thing I disagree with is using LLMs - if anything they should make that mandatory now because it's going to be totally integrated in the future and they're going to need to get used to using it. BUT grading should be 1000% more stringent on getting facts right and specifically looking for things that LLMs get wrong.
AND all that to say - using your list and other methods to show student knowledge/undertanding should avoid any possibility of being able to complete a task with AI alone.