BlogHer - Chicken vs. Fish: NYC Student cell phone ban and Mayor Bloomberg - Comments

Democracy, not tyranny!

OmegaWolf747 — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:00:10 -0500

If students want to bring their cell phones and MP3 players, that is their rights as citizens of a free country. Government workers need to keep their fat mouths shut and do what the tax paying citizens want, not what they want.

Students should be the ones to decide school policy. Teachers and principals like all government agents, are servers whose salaries are paid by our tax dollars.

Sic sempter tyrannus!

I'll have the fish, please

BeautifulSorta — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:24:43 -0500

I really don't think it's a generational thing; I'm 32, and I have sort of grown up with the evolution of the cell phone. I text my friends, call my husband for stupid reasons (like the chicken or fish debate), and I take pictures with my cell. However, I am also a teacher, and I know the trouble cell phones can cause in the classroom!

Yes, it's great to feel that the kids are safe, but it's true that "we" didn't need phones when we were in school; if there was an emergency, mom or dad could call us, or we could call them in the office. Teachers now have phones in their rooms, as well.

Kids can be sneaky - they take the phones to the bathroom and text messages to friends; when subs (and sometimes, the normal teacher) are in the room, they lower their heads to text or listen to iPods with their earbuds. I've even heard stories of crafty students who, during group work, use their bluetooths to have actual phone conversations with other students, their actions hidden to the teacher because they seem to be working on schoolwork.

Oi! Don't get me started on all the problems with students stealing other students' phones and electronic devices. Last year, I know of 2 instances in my own classroom where students left their iPods visible, under their chairs, in purses, backpacks, etc. - and they were stolen.

My son is only a year old, so I don't know where the technology will take us by the time he is "of age". I certainly will allow him to have a phone, but I can't condone his using it or having it in the classroom. However, I don't think it's so horrible to have it in his locker or some other safe storage place during the school day - for use after school.

I'd give my daughter a cell

mom2amara — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 12:09:06 -0500

I am a long ways away from when Amara will be old enough to have a cell phone. However I know that once she is old enough to participate in extra curricular activities that we will get her one.

Dad2Amara and I agree with Nordette. We will wait until we know Amara is responsible enough to own the phone. And we will take that privilege away if it is abused. That includes having the phone on during school hours.

Unlike SmalltownRN, I could have used a cell when I was in school. When my mom was held up at the hospital where she worked or if my dad was stuck in traffic after a long day, it would have been nice to have gotten that call saying they were late in picking me up from a club or sports practice or whatever it may be. It would also be courtesy to the adult who was "watching" me at that moment. With our entire family's busy schedules, a cell phone used correctly can be a useful tool.

I think kids signing up for activities without parental consent is a whole different topic than that of children with cell phones. Those families that have children who believe they are entitled to everything have bigger fish to fry than whether they'll be permitted to use a cell phone. I was raised in a family where we openly talked about what activities I would and would not be involved with. And even at age 4, Amara helps decide if this semester will be dance or swim classes. We do not allow her to do everything she wants. And when you start that thinking off at an early age, we hope to set the stage for when she's older.

www.Mom2Amara.com
www.NorthCoastMoms.com

Chicken vs. Fish: NYC Student cell phone ban and Mayor Bloomberg

Nordette — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:37:51 -0500

Dismissing parents' assertions that students in New York City Public Schools need cell phones for safety reasons and communicating their locations to parents, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg declares students don't need cell phones period. The mayor declared school staff can handle emergencies and that parents only want their children to have cell phones so that parents can decide on chicken or fish for dinner:

If your question is do you want to have fish or chicken for dinner tonight, that’s not something we should pull your kid out. If it’s an emergency, call the school. If it’s not an emergency, it has to wait. There’s nothing more important for our children than getting them the education they’re going to need to survive and you can’t have both. (Source: City blogs at The New York Times)

He made this statement during his radio show. You may listen to the full show at this link.

You see, New York City Schools banned all mobile electronic communications devices, and parents and the mayor have been battling ever since. Bloomberg believes that in addition to discussing dinner plans with parents, students use cell phones to cheat on tests and to look at pornography, according to the blog post at The Times:

We have a rule in our schools: no electronic devices, no cellphones, BlackBerrys, iPods, PDAs, whatever. Schools are for learning and our teachers –- we have 80,000 of the best teachers in the world. They work so hard. They’re trying to do the best job they possibly can. We have 1,400 principals doing a great job and the last thing they need is another diversion. (Bloomberg per The New York Times "City Blogs")

He doesn't want to lift the ban and replace it with a rule like the one at my son's previous school as well as his new school, which is cell phones must remain out of view and turned off during school hours, and any student seen using a cell phone during school hours will have that phone confiscated. Some schools add detention in addition to cell phone confiscation. Bloomberg says such rules won't work with NYC Public School students because students will not turn off phones but leave them on vibrate, sneak under desk and use cell phones anyway.

However, he hopes to appease parents in a huff over the cell phone ban with his own solution to help parents plan dinner. The blog NYC Public School Parents reports that the mayor suggests the following system:

The new plan would mandate that schools set aside three minutes of homeroom period each day for children to select their dinner options from a printed list. Children will choose appetizer, entrée and dessert, as well as a beverage option, and, using a number two pencil, will enter their choices by filling in bubbles on a computerized answer sheet. The sheets will be collected and fed into the DOE’s ARIS supercomputer, which will analyze the choices and then either email, FAX, or phone the information to parents in time to cook dinner. The Mayor said that the plan would insure that students no longer will need to bring cell phones to school, since determining dinner plans is the only reason they were needed in the first place. (Source: NYC School Parent)

My son, who has never been an NYC Public School student, received his first cellphone at age 16. I didn't buy him one earlier because I didn't want unexpected text messaging bills or calls to China, and so I waited for him to show that he was more responsible.

Okay, he'd never called China in the past, but I'd heard about other tweens and teens saddling their parents with skyrocketing cell phone bills by calling China and I definitely wanted to avoid that. However, my son's cell phone has actually been helpful. He's not only used it to text his sister or friends, but also to call me with the exact time to pick him up following off-hour school events or to ask for permission to go out with friends on the spur of the moment.

Maybe I was wrong to get him the cell phone. I read a post today at A Place I call Home in which Smalltown RN, age 46, confessed she didn't understand why today's school students need cell phones. She didn't need one when she was in school, she said.

I mean I am not that old ok I will be 46 next week, but really, we managed to survive without them. To me they are being used by parents as babysitters. I don't buy into the whole safety thing. Not for being used at school anyhow. Before we would leave for school we always knew the plan for after school. If plans changed we would ask permission from the school secretary to use the phone of save a quarter to call our parents. But how often did that happen? Rarely in my case.

Jeni, who blogs at Down River Drivel and who according to her blogger profile is age 62, commented on Small RN's post in agreement:

Once again, I think our logic is running on the same pathway!
Kids and cell phones has been a topic here off and on with the stepgranddaughter being of a mind that she thinks she is automatically entitled to everything and anything her pea-picking heart desires. At least on the cellphone issue, her Dad and stepmother have nixed that idea. ... Participation in after school programs though has been a major issue though as this kid just assumes she can and will sign up for everything that comes down the pike with no thought as to how she will get back and forth to the school. My kids knew if they wanted to participate in something, THEY - not me -would have to be responsible to see they had transportation lined up because my work schedule would rarely allow for me to be relied on to play chauffeur to their whims.

Is that what those of us who've bought our minor children cell phones to communicate with them are doing, indulging our children's whims?

Yes, my son has a cell phone, but he also knows not to plan anything expecting me to pick him up if I haven't agreed that he may participate in or attend the event and agreed on his transportation plans. He understands that I may not be available "to play chauffeur" at his whim.

Perhaps the cell phone debate reflects a generation gap. An article at Red Orbit Breaking News suggests that's what's going on today, a generation gap "between kids and parents over back-to-school technology." Is that what's up with Mayor Bloomberg and students with cell phones, a gap between him and the youth culture of beeping, buzzing things? I don't know the answer, but I do know that his solution sounds pretty wacky, sending dinner desires home via an ARIS computer. A friend of mine who does not have children heard about this cell phone war, the choice between chicken or fish, and Bloomberg's solution and had only one comment: "That's why he'll never be president," he said.

Photo Credit: The Gotham Gazette

Nordette Adams is a Contributing Editor at BlogHer.org.