The Dreaded Cell Phone Monster!

Destroying Young Minds one classroom at a time!

There was a story last week about an Arizona school teacher quitting due to “cell phone addiction.” Not his—his students. Mitchell Rutherford told the WSJ and local news outlets he had had it with his students refusing—or unable—to put down their phones and pay attention in bio class; that smartphones were worse than drugs or sugar, it was that bad.

SOP in the “news” biz is to explore all possible reasons and sources for the problem – except the real ones. In this case,” He doesn’t blame the kids fully, however. He told the local outlet that society has to foster better habits in children.” And, of course, the permanent bad guy: the “pandemic learning loss”.

Stats show the disruption of what passes for “public education” did have a measurable deleterious effect on learning. But there is also the rarely mentioned issue: “…some students would flat-out admit to him they didn’t care about school.”.

Still, Rutherford maintained – unchallenged – Society bears the brunt of coming up with the fix.

“As a society, we need to prioritize educating our youth and protecting our youth and allowing their brains and social skills and happiness to develop in a natural way, without their phone," Rutherford said.”

Right! It takes Society to prioritize “educating and protecting our youth. And here I thought it took a village. But what the hell? “Society”… ”village”… tomato…to mah-toe…

Conclusion: Student learning is the problem. Cell phone addiction is the cause; teachers are the hapless victims, unable – without Society’s help – to rescue the helpless, apathetic darlings from their ‘habit’: mainlining their cell phones.

Does anyone wonder where Mom and/or Dad is in all this? Who secures the phone? Who pays the bill? Who has primary responsibility and authority over its possession and use?  (Oh, Brian! You are so Neanderthal!)

What about the teachers? School boards? Bored [sic] of Education? Is anything or nothing forbidden in classrooms anymore? Are there no longer school student policies of conduct? Don’t bother – it’s a rhetorical question.

But still demanding an adult answer laced with the authority of the adults, common sense, and a divorce from the excuses from ‘all the usual suspects’.

Some school systems have these policies. Cell phones are turned in at the beginning of the school day and returned after the final bell. Some schools prohibit cell phone possession at all during the school day. Remarkably, no one has died or suffered from CPWS (Cell Phone Withdrawal syndrome. In fact, in some schools, cell phone abstention has resulted in (GASP!) better grades here, here, and here, and a few dozen additional places.

Of course, implementation of such policies initiated in the face of today’s narcissistic puberty warriors requires guts, determination, and consistency – just the things anathema to modern parents, teachers, and most academic ‘leaders’ who were raised under the hovering helicopter of similarly disposed parents and teachers.

Instituting school policies forbidding cell phone possession or use is right up there with the other snowballs in hell. Tragically, the chowderheads stumbling out of schools at all levels because of their laserbeam focus on their One-Eyed God are destined to be the cyclops of the future, “obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.” – George Carlin

It doesn’t have to this way. If only…

BW

Thanks for reading this far.

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Put a Chick in It and Make her Gay. And Lame. Elizabeth Nickson

 After the State  Kulak

Gold Prices Rise as the Dollar Slowly Dies Daniel Lacalle

Can We Secure Property Rights without the State? George Ford Smith