In California, a high school teacher complains that students watch Netflix on their phones during class. In Maryland, a chemistry teacher says students use gambling apps to place bets during the school day.
Around the country, educators say students routinely send Snapchat messages in class, listen to music and shop online, among countless other examples of how smartphones distract from teaching and learning.
The hold that phones have on adolescents in America today is well-documented, but teachers say parents are often not aware to what extent students use them inside the classroom. And increasingly, educators and experts are speaking with one voice on the question of how to handle it: Ban phones during classes.
As someone with severe ADHD, if I don’t have something to listen to(through headphones obviously) or to mess with in my hands, I can pay attention to about 3 words before I am completely distracted with how the ceiling tiling looks. I get that a lot of students simply don’t pay attention as a result of their phone, but for some of us, it’s the only reason we can pay attention.
Not to mention, ebooks are a thing, and when you’re pirating them you don’t have to worry about overdue fees or your book getting stolen/damaged.
Final point, a lot of my teachers were dogshit, so learning from Wikipedia and other sources was vastly more entertaining and informative than listening to them try to explain addition to that dumbass in the back for the 8th time when he can’t even read