Dr. Rosemond article on cell phones and kids
Living with Children
John Rosemond
Copyright 2010 John K. Rosemond
" Jon Akers, Director of the Kentucky Center for School
Safety, has written an on-line essay calling on school systems to
prohibit students from having cell phones in their possession during
school hours (go to www.kysafeschools.org). He presents an iron-clad
argument to the effect that student cell phones are not just
unnecessary but also contribute to bullying, underachievement, sexual
harassment, numerous disciplinary issues, including cheating, and even
criminal activity. It goes without saying that they are one more
distraction to a generation that is already suffering from distraction
overload.
In the course of his research, Akers learned that whereas
almost all school systems initially attempted to prohibit or restrict
student use of cell phones, most have ultimately capitulated to
pressure from parents and students. In some cases, the obvious choice
has been made to ignore violations; in others, the matter has been
deferred by state-level bureaucrats to individual schools or districts.
That buck-passing has resulted in largely ineffectual attempts at
control. Needless to say, it doesn’t take a teenager long to figure out
that a rule isn’t going to be consistently enforced, much less figure
out how to use a cell phone without being detected, as in texting.
The problem of enforcement is complicated by parents who
demand instant access to their children during the school day and
therefore will not support attempts to enforce cell phone restrictions.
In this regard, parents often point out the need for their kids to be
able to contact them in the event of a school shooting or terrorist
attack, the likelihood of which is miniscule. Besides, in situations of
those sorts the last thing law enforcement wants is hundreds of parents
racing toward and crowding around a threatened school, thus
constituting a hindrance to emergency operations.
As for parents needing to be able to communicate with their
kids during the school day, how about calling and asking that the child
be brought to the office? Let’s face it folks, the child who frequently
“needs” to call his parents during the school day is the very child who
needs to learn to take responsibility for himself. In that regard, a
good number of principals and teachers have told me of cases in which a
student has called parents from school to complain of being
disciplined, resulting in said parents storming into the school to
right the “wrong” inflicted upon their little innocent. These sorts of
situations do not, by any stretch, constitute “need.”
Akers also points out that the shrinking numbers of kids who
don’t have cell phones still manage, somehow, to get through the school
day just fine. I’ll go a step further and speculate that these deprived
children generally have greater respect for authority, a higher level
of social and emotional well-being, and are (needless to say) more
focused on their academic responsibilities than their cell-phone
obsessed peers.
Regular readers of this column know I don’t believe a child
(anyone under age 19 who is still dependent upon parental support)
should have a cell phone until he/she is capable of paying for both the
phone and the monthly bills. The riposte given most often by parents
who disagree, and they are in the majority, is they want their kids,
when they start driving, to be able to contact them in an emergency.
Pardon the intrusion of fact, folks, but a study released last month
(January 2010) by the National Safety Council finds that 28 percent of
accidents occur while drivers are talking or texting on cell phones. In
other words, a teen driver with a cell phone is far more likely to have
a life-threatening emergency than a teen driver whose parents have
properly weighed the pros and cons and made what is clearly the correct
decision.
Several large school systems—including New York, Detroit,
and Milwaukee—have banned student cell phones and student life goes
on—more normally, I venture. If kids in New York city can live without
cell phones during the school day, then so can kids in Smallville."
Agree or disagree... this is something to think about before purchasing a cell phone for a child.
