Darcy Elkins
Recently, a new Florida law has been implemented that prohibits elementary and middle school students from using their phones on campus. And you may think it’s terrible, but I think it will really benefit students across the board! Think about it; there will be no distractions, which leads to better grades. Less cheating, which means you’ll have to be forced to learn, and you’ll show what you know. Additionally, having your phone would mean fewer conversations, which means you wouldn’t be as social with your friends and classmates.
Imagine if people were able to take out their phones and do whatever they wanted to during class; I think there would be many issues in the classroom. Students could just take out their phones and start playing games during class time. I know it sounds fun, but what if your teacher was talking about an important test the next day, or an assignment due in class? You would be so focused on your phone that you would have no idea whatsoever about what was going on in the classroom. Maybe you don’t care, but you actually might miss important things in class that could really impact your grades.
Many students would also be very tempted to cheat on assignments or tests since their phones were right in front of them. I know, some days you really just feel tired or just want to relax, so you think it’s easier just to cheat. But the reality is, it’s easier to just get your work done on your own, so you don’t have to go through the trouble of being caught cheating. Having your phone out in the classroom would help contribute to cheating and other problems, so I believe it’s better to keep them away.
I believe it would also be a problem in the hallways. I know that it is fun to go on your phone, but what’s the point of only going on it for 4 minutes in the hallways? What will you even be able to do in those short 4 minutes? Plus, if everyone had their phone in the hallways, no one would be paying attention, so students would run into each other, and there would be ‘traffic’ in the hallways. This would most likely lead to being late to class, so I think that phones would be too much of a problem in the hallways.
Picture this: you walk into the lunchroom and everyone is on their phones. The lunchroom is completely silent. You try to talk to your friends, but they are too busy on their phones to talk. Lunch is supposed to be a social hour, not a time to scroll endlessly. And where else are you allowed to talk to friends at school? Everywhere else, you are supposed to be either doing classwork, walking to class, or you just can’t talk. Having your phone at lunch would destroy the only social hour you really have. Lunch is the perfect time to talk to friends, so I think phones would take away the social aspect of it.
Because of all these issues, I believe that phones would cause school to become a bad learning environment. School is supposed to be a place to learn, but if you had your phone, there wouldn’t be much learning going on in the classrooms. Phones don’t only affect learning, but also bring in safety issues about what could happen in the hallways. Overall, phones would contribute to many problems in the school building, so for now, it’s best to keep them away in your backpack.