HANNAFORD: Hanging up on classroom cellphone abuse

You mean it takes a ministerial fiat to get mobile phones out of the classroom?And you mean it’s not enough for a school principal to simply tell staff to make sure nobody has their phone in class and confiscate them for the duration of the lesson if they pull them out, anyway?Apparently so, and in the second place, apparently not.Earlier Monday, Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides announced that starting in the new school year, students would not be allowed to use cellphones during and access would be banned to social media sites in Alberta schools. All this, said the minister, would “reduce distractions, maximize learning time, support student mental health, and reduce opportunities for cyberbullying.”Good for the minister.He’s right of course, and if this is really what it takes to “reduce distractions, maximize learning times” etc, so be it.But this is not what it should take. And really, the story here is not about mobile phones in schools, it’s about cowardice in the staff room and loss of control the classroom.Let’s recognize the two arguments you might make for allowing a child to bring a phone into class.First, you could be a helicopter parent who can’t bear the idea of your child being out of contact.Second, for the maths class, the phone has a handy calculator function.But neither of these rationalizations really make the cut.Much as we respect family values here at the Western Standard, you can have too much of a good thing. Ask any child over whom a parent has ‘hovered.’When and how do you teach independence, and confidence? If they’re in class, they’re under supervision. They’ll be ok.As for the calculator, buy one. They’re a lot less money than a phone. Walmart has them for less than $10. (And maybe it would be a good idea to learn at least some mental arithmetic anyway?)Bottom line, yes they’re a security blanket for parents and yes they have a maths function, but deep down you know it’s not about recreational calculus; kids want phones for social media, to play addictive games and sadly in some cases, they want them for reasons that rightly concern the police.According to LawNow.org, “The Alberta Government reports that about 25% of students in Grades 7 to 11 in Canada have received or sent a sext. A University of Calgary study reports that 12.5% of teenagers are forwarding intimate photos without the sender’s consent.”And as we all know, the people who design social media won't let their kids play with it.No, this was a gimme. It should never have hit the minister’s desk.The real problem here is that school administrators are so afraid of the inevitable confrontation with a noisy, demanding and unreasonable parent (not to mention with a noisy, demanding and defiant teenager) that they won’t remove the obvious distraction to learning from the classroom.And why are they so scared? Because they know they likely won’t get backed up, when that same wretched parent goes to the school board and excoriates trustees who have no more wish or ability to take a stand than the teachers.No doubt there are noble exceptions here and there. Broadly however, the school system gives one no great reason for confidence and people are pulling their kids out of it, at a rate that alarms everybody who makes their living from it.Minister Nicolaides did the right thing.Let’s hope he doesn’t have to pay too high a political price for doing so.