Spokane, Reardan, Davenport, Harrington, Odessa.
Schools across the region are tackling the issue of cellphone addiction among students, at least while on campus.
Well, maybe tackling the addiction is a bit strong. Let’s just say school boards here in Eastern Washington and elsewhere are finally taking action to keep phones out of students’ hands in classrooms.
At issue in many districts is whether cellphones should be allowed in class, at lunch, on buses or even on campus. It’s a no-brainer — the short answer is no.
Cellphone-addicted students are more focused on taking a “selfie” than they are learning. They’re more engrossed in texting their boyfriend or girlfriend than studying. And when they get on a school bus, they are more excited about surfing through applications, many of which sport inappropriate content, than talking with their peers or paying attention to what’s going on around them.
As a result, few youngsters these days communicate well with others. Reading and writing comprehension is down. And other life skills, such as map reading, are almost non-existent.
Over the last 20 years, school districts have contributed to the problem by not setting strict rules banning their use on school buses and campuses, or at school-based events.
Getting to the point, students don’t need a cellphone at school or at school-based events. They simply aren’t necessary.
Handheld cellular telephones have been around since 1973, when Motorola put the first one on the market. It took more than 30 years before cellphones started popping up at schools.
Baby Boomers and Gen Xers didn’t have “mobile” phone available in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Of course, since they were about the size of brick, those mobile phones were not really that mobile and the cost could range upwards of $10,000. And those phones could barely make a call.
Phones with calculators and other minor applications didn’t hit the scene until the mid-1990s and the first phones with easy-to-use texting capabilities didn’t show up until the late 1990s. Still, children didn’t have cell phones in school.
Fast forward 20-plus years. Now, just about every kid has a “smart” phone in their pocket at school. But they’re not just phones, they’re computers.
And those computers are creating a distraction that has diminished the ability of our students to problem solve, reason, communicate and even think for themselves.
It’s good to see our schools stepping up efforts to end their use on campuses and at school-based events. But it may be too late to put the Genie back in the campus bottle.
Parental support is necessary to end student addiction to cellphones. Curtailing the addiction may start at school, but it needs to continue at home.
— Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Email him at [email protected].
Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, columnist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers from Washington state to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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