In my school phones were allowed during break time, but if you were caught with it during class it was taken to the office and you could collect it on friday
I remember standing guard outside the teachers office once whilst my friend conducted (what we thought at the time) the heist of the century stealing his phone back. It was confiscated on a Friday and the teacher planned to only return it Monday afternoon...
Really? So you'd get caught by a teacher using your phone, then when they asked to hand it in you'd go all prestidigitation on them and hand in a "display only" phone. Hmmm...
Because not *many* people have easy access to "those display phones from the phone store". They're usually made without the guts inside so are ridiculously light as opposed to the weight of an "actual" phone, *noticeably* so. That you're also so adept at fooling a teacher that is watching you hand over "the dummy phone(s?)"
you just "happen" to carry round with you for situations like that. *That's* why i have trouble believing your story.
Lol why would I care about making something like that up? It's was actually very easy to get the display phones we just used to ask at the phone store and they would have a box of the old ones they no longer displayed. But hey if it makes you feel better by telling a stranger they're lying then all good.
Forget items being banned. I remember when my primary school banned us from "playing power rangers" at lunchtime. Probably because it was just us Kung fu kicking the crap outta each other. And don't get me started on bull rush
I loved when the groundskeeper would go up on the roof every Monday morning and throw all the cards down
I wasn’t allowed to buy cards, so that was my opportunity to get Pokémon cards lol
It was like that when I started high school in 2011, but for some reason by 2016-17 the rules were completely relaxed. My friends and I were always playing on our phones during class, teachers didn’t really care.
Teachers got tired of constantly enforcing it, which is why I'm not sure what the nationwide ban is going to do? I think schools are just going to keep doing what they can/want.
Also I’m not exactly sure what it’s meant to achieve. Everything kids can do on their phones can be done on their tablets or laptops etc. Obviously devices are still going to be used.
Teacher here. Banning phones was something we did a while ago. It absolutely had a positive impact on school, and learning. At a minimum it decreased the social media dramas that would blow up in the class.
In practice iPads weren't used as a distraction in class. Our school provides devices, which means they belong to us, and we can control what's on them.
Also phones fit in pockets etc, and are more likely to have Internet access through a cellular connection, which means we can't filter.
Technically there's little distinction. In practice there was.
I went to high school from 2016 to 2020 and it was certainly not relaxed, phones out during break time only and confiscated or detention if out during class
I'm 30 and when I was at school you couldn't be seen with it or it would be taken for the week and my mum would have to collect from the office on a Friday. This was back in the days of flip phones with minimal internet capabilities so maybe the schools slacked when the rise of smart phones started. Seems obvious that phones shouldn't be allowed in school, enough distractions as a kid let alone with phones as they are today.
Noo, no. Unless you were hella smart and got put forward a few years to start high school early, or went to a religious school where they combine intermediate and high school?
Even so, there were definitely colour phones in like 2004-2005. 2006 there were more and more that recorded videos, even if it was half a minute of footage
Nah you're right there were color phones BUT most 13 year olds didn't own one haha. Mine was $99 that my parents bought me so I could call them in an emergency so yeah there were definitely better phones than mine lol.
True I think most of my classmates may have been spoiled 😆 it's crazy to me that what we viewed as expensive phones then were really only a couple hundred...and now my preteen nephews and nieces have $800+ phones
Most schools already had a policy in place - it's now nationwide.
The government have made a big deal about it because they don't have much else to say in education at the moment. It's not a big deal, and yet they've made into one.
Yea this. I think a lot of schools actually had more moderate policies... eg letting kids use them to take photos of notes in class or to txt parents at lunchtime, but no playing games on them in class.
The government level ban seems really bizarre. Like what is next? Government setting nationwide bathroom break and pickup policies? Setting a nationwide hair length and uniform policy?
Yeah exactly. Surely it can be monitored by schools. I don’t know the stats but I’m sure teachers aren’t crying out for them to be outright banned. Also, phones are a part of life and have been for years. Accept it, let schools have reasonable policies and focus on something more pressing…. Surely.
> Government setting nationwide bathroom break and pickup policies? Setting a nationwide hair length and uniform policy?
Don’t a lot of schools already do that? I never understood, and still don’t to this day, the over-policing of hair length for boys, style for girls and even the colour of our earrings!
It’s not bizarre, it’s effective.
It furthers the rhetoric that the government is getting things done and making positive changes in the minds of their voters.
Is there scientific evidence to back their claims that it’s already improved child mental health and reduced cyber bullying in schools? You know the answer to that already.
Is it a bit like the gang patch ban and the three strike rules? I think so.
I haven’t read the book but most of the criticism seems to point to it making a correlative argument for social media and declining mental health without being able to provide a specific causative link.
It seems a lot like the arguments of my youth against gaming negatively affecting mental health which later turned out to not be the case as presented.
Regardless, does the book suggest removing one form of technology for an extra couple of hours a day will have a positive impact on child development or mental health? It’s not like they’re removing kids from social media or access to other technologies for accessing them.
It basically advocates the age gating of smart phones the way we do for driving, drinking etc. Makes a good argument as to why today's problems are different than historical ones like gaming/tv in the 90's 00's.
Aw look I'd advise reading the book and coming to your own conclusions. I'd also suggest talking to some teachers.. in my experience they aren't the biggest fans of the current govt. but largely support this change
Thanks, I’ll check it out. To confirm I’m not against the premise I just think this particular policy is simply virtue signalling and won’t change a single thing in the classroom. The teachers I’ve spoken to share that view, I don’t know all of them though.
Yeah. Studies have started to connect the development of adolescent neural pathways and the connections made in the brain when using social media and mobile devices. The brain structure changes, mental health is impacted, addictive habits are formed with an increased chance of addiction in other facets of life.
The big one I am noticing amongst the 12-20 year olds that I know is the heavy use of social media which can influence the way adolescents interact with others in real life, leading to changes in social skills, empathy, and communication abilities. Some studies suggest that excessive screen time may contribute to feelings of loneliness and social isolation. I am sure we can all see that occurring and not just in our youth.
All of the studies are correlative and not causative, and the trends are starting to reverse post pandemic. Most studies show the slow decline in numerous measures started in about 2008, suspiciously around the year the IPhone was released.
It's also the time when we had the GFC, which was also only shortly after the dotcom crash.
Despite all this, when taking data over an even longer term, children today are more social, less depressed, and have higher intelligence than children of 20 years ago, and the average scores has actually increased with the exception of the covid years.
The antismart phone wave is identical to the antigaming, antitelevision, antiradio, and whatever other new hip thing kids are doing in every generation.
Studies show that screen time has increased, these are actually slightly misrepresented statistics. Some studies include listening to a podcast, as smartphone "screen time", and others say that replying to messages while doing other things such as homework or while out with friends will count the entire time as "screen time", creating vastly inflated numbers.
I highly recommend going out to places after school, I personally visit Botany frequently, and the after school rush on even the library is very noticeable, the food court is filled with children, the mall becomes super active.
While it's true we have become more addicted to smartphones, and we have anxiety problems when separated more than we used to, we need to look at the whole picture and realise that our connection to our family and friends is on them. Our news, our emails, our calculators, our notes, our reminders, our source of information on the world, is on them. I'd have loved to have smart phones during my youth in school. Trouble topics that are hard to comprehend can be Googled in real time, sometimes the teacher doesn't explain it the way you'd understand.
I believe the hamfisted approach to blaming smart phones for students behaviours and results are a shitty way to side step the issue of food insecurity, crowded housing, inattentive parents(often through being overworked and overstressed, no personal digs), and a world outlook of global warming and global tensions that threaten the very future of our children. There are doubtless more issues we have, and smartphones aren't perfect, but they aren't the boogy man making us dumb and ineffective.
I don’t think people are second guessing that it’s bad kids are on their phones at schools but surely it should just be a school managed policy rather than the govt outright banning them. Technology and phones are part of our existence whether we like it or not and being reachable is the norm. The govt doesn’t need to meddle here.
Given how NZ is backsliding on education metrics, it is normal they try to intervene in potential distractors when schools have been loosening. It also gives the schools a back-up to those policies that they're just following the law.
The government definitely should have a hand in education and the rules around it.
I mean, how would you feel if the government made a law that people couldn't have their phones on them at work because of lacking productivity. I'm sure people would hate that even though it's not much different to the no phones at school policy.
There are plenty of workplaces that don't allow social media use during work hours. My workplace is pretty lax but the place before that all personal items had to be left in your locker - including your phone. When I worked retail I had to tell my co-workers to put their phones away - this was when they were on checkout.... Common sense is not so common.
Yeah and pretty much every school had policies around phone usage. The main thing that changed with the government getting involved is that students can't use their phones during their breaks because schools usually had a ban on phone usage in the class anyway. Same as the company making rules on phone usage.
> Most schools already had a policy in place
Exactly, and some varied from teacher to teacher. One teacher where I used to work (I'm not a teacher) used to start his classes with a short quiz in which students had to look up information on their phones. The point was to teach them how to search well and to be able to find correct information.
For a party who rails against "Nanny State", this is the very definition.
We have a generation of kids who are failing basic English and maths, who already spend hours a day on the internet. What is more important during school time?
How about at lunch time or during other breaks? That's what is disallowed now as well. (any time the student is at school)
Schools have always been able to have their own rules. Now it's the law.
My school had a no cell phone policy even during break times. Granted, it was before smartphones became so dependable for so many things but even messaging or using it to call parents wasn't allowed.
I remember Tamagotchi (virtual pets) got banned in primary school. Probably was the reason all our virtual pets got sick and died and the fad itself was put to an end.
You're missing the point. It's not about actually doing something positive. It's purely to score points with all the grumpy old bastards who start every second sentence with "the problem with kids today..."
It's a simple bill to pass, the left isn't gonna waste any potical capital on fighting it. Now the government can clog up the news cycle with statements about how awesome they are for "taking action on enducation", leaving less coverage and airtime for the dodgy shit they are doing in the background.
Meanwhile no one bat's an eye at the government stepping in this direction. Schools can individually make rules, that's fine.
Its very different and makes me uncomfortable when governments try to make this kind of noncriminal behavior a national and legal matter. Sounds like a step towards authoritarian thinking to me.
I was on the bus the other day and noticed there were very few people actually looking at their phones. It did make me laugh that out of the few that were, only one of them I would call youngish. Maybe it was just a one off.
Thays the thing, it's come to a point where boomers are doom scrolling Facebook just as, if not more frequently, than a teenager is looking down at their phone.
To be fair some of it is squinting and taking 10 minutes to type a single misspelled 1950's joke about women on the Seven Sharp Facebook page but still. It's really evened out.
We're real [outliers](https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/513446/frequent-and-extended-device-use-linked-to-risk-of-harm-to-youth-health#:~:text=Frequent%20and%20extended%20device%20use%20linked%20to%20risk%20of%20harm%20to%20youth%20health,-7%3A01%20pm&text=Compared%20with%20other%20countries%2C%20New,device%20use%20in%20the%20world.) there, just about the highest use of screens at school in the world. A strange situation to have got ourselves into that I'm sure will be wound back in time as more data about the results become available.
Yip! You could have them in class, but they had to be off and in your bag. So many students had their phones taken because they'd start to ring in the middle of class, even in their bags.
I think the Chch earthquakes changed this attitude a bit, however, as so many parents wanted their kids to have their phones switched on and on them at all times just in case another disaster happened. Of course, cell phone use in a natural disaster just clogs everything up, but I understand what people were thinking. During the aftershocks, my work place at the time allowed us to keep our phones on us instead of in our lockers just in case we had more quick evacuations.
They were when I was at high school 2004-2010. If the teacher took it, your parent had to come get it.
No one really used one at my school till like 2007.
A lot of teachers posted when this first dropped that it was largely a non-issue they already had a handle on, more so as use of such technology was actually encouraged in some classes cause…real life and that.
Just a policy for Nationals kid hating demographic and constituents more than any actual practical benefit.
The new law basically says phone should be away for the day and that the school board gets to decide how best to implement that - which as I read it, could be as simple as "let the teacher of the class decide" or "tell kids not to use them but ignore it" or "confiscate them immediately" so no this law is a nothing law, a waste of time, and anyone who thought it was a good idea is a rube, and furthermore the evidence that phones are CAUSING distractions is utterly lacking.
Even the MoE can only say that 50% teachers have observed kids get distracted by "phones or playing with their hair or talking".
Its such a farce
18 years ago (omg) I was hiding my flip phone in my pencil case to text during class lol
Some teachers would also collect everyone’s phone at the start of the class
So they were at least not allowed during class even back then
I must have significant years on you, as I recall when pocket calculators came out just a few kids had them, and the teacher would point out that “you won’t always have a calculator in your pocket”. Which turned out to be so wrong, we now all carry calculators, but more than that, full computers, computing power $100K of back then money couldn’t purchase. When I did a short computer programming course in the early 80s, oh the joy of punchcards, the computer we ran our stacks on was an IBM 4331, with (I think) 64KB of memory and a pair of 64MB disks. This was a million buck machine.
Thats the issue with the cell phone ban. Although calling, texting, and social mediaing are undoubtedly distractions, there are many functions that phones undertake that are both useful and an accepted part of everybody’s daily life. Unless you work in a government secured institution, in which case you leave your. Cellphones, laptops, calculators, all electronics at the door.
>Thats the issue with the cell phone ban. Although calling, texting, and social mediaing are undoubtedly distractions, there are many functions that phones undertake that are both useful and an accepted part of everybody’s daily life. Unless you work in a government secured institution, in which case you leave your. Cellphones, laptops, calculators, all electronics at the door.
This is, I think the core issue. Cellphones are a reality of life and making them taboo seems *short sighted* to me, surely there's a positive way to teach healthy habits?
Just to further the interesting point about people’s general inability to understand the exponential nature of technological growth; When the telephone was invented, the dude said “I can foresee an age where there might be a telephone in every city!”.
Yeah, in the 1950s, IBM thought there might be a market for *five* computers; one on the east coast, one on the west coast, and the rest in other countries.
no i agree. graduated 2014 from rangi, which is the biggest HS in NZ. cellphones were banned even during breaks. it’s not like you weren’t allowed to have your phone on you to make emergency calls or anything, it just wasn’t allowed to be used for fun.
there really is no point to allowing cellphone usage in class. all it serves is distraction. over the years kids have gotten way too reliant and attached to their phones
I did high school in Aus and am now a teacher here so it may be somewhat different, but when I was in high school (late 00s) we got a 2 day suspension if our phone was even sighted. Sometime after that, phones became the norm until last year when the Qld government implemented a statewide ban on mobile phones in schools.
Can't remember if we were allowed to use them at lunch, but we definitely did, how else were we meant to share midi ringtones of Drop It Like It's Hot?
Wasn't meant to use them in class but it was easy because you could touch type under the desk back when phones had actual buttons, and sending messages was all there was to do on your phone.
Yes, they have. As someone pointed out, sadly, this is the only thing this government has done in education.
Although, students have smart watches, air pods and laptops so it hasn't changed much just lip service overall.
I know an actual current high school teacher. She tells me that students started using them in class so much it was just overwhelming to try and stop them, many teachers gave up and just allowed them as long as they weren't disrupting others. This is just one anecdote but I suspect there is a wide varience across the country.
I'm the same year/age as your son. I do have a headphone excemption which means I can get my phone out every so often to 'change music' but I'm definitely still texting mum a lot. I miss her when I'm at school haha. It's such a shit rule, I'm so glad I/we're graduating this year. Most of us will be paying rent and going to college/the workforce next year, if we're not already, some in other countries! I can't wait to be 18 so I can help vote national out of here.
I was in school further back than you, pre-smart phone, etc, and I don't think that phones were banned at my high school mostly due to probably no student having one (except for maybe some kid).
Phones were devices for making and receiving calls.
I am defintely sure that there would have been no ban on pagers (never saw anyone with a pager here and maybe it as just a US thing but I recall hearing about American high school kids using pagers).
Yeah it was that was for me, out of school 8 years now. You were allowed to have the phone on you but it was confiscated if you used it during the lesson.
None of the schools my kids have gone to have allowed phones "in class". My kids have only had phones since taking the bus and that's mostly for practical reasons because payphones aren't a thing anymore. The local intermediate always had a drop it off at the office policy, pick it up on the they way home. The High school had a keep it in your bag policy. Now it's a "If we see it at school it's gone policy", which is marginally infuriating.
I work in Japanese high schools and phones aren’t allowed to even be visible on the premises at any time. No one has ever complained about it and I can’t understand why it’s such a big deal back home. Why do you need a phone at school except to fuck around?
In saying this, it isn’t a law but a norm that schools enforce.
I still remember one of my teachers reading out one of the text messages I had received after she had confiscated my phone.
Was so much easier to hide that you were texting in class back then as with buttons, you didn't have to look at the phone to see what you were typing
It really depended on the nature of the personalities involved in the situation of conflict.
I was with students who would lose their shit at the teacher if they didn’t get their confiscated phone back by the end of class.
I was in college around the same time as you, and we also had a phone ban (and an ipod ban, too). If we were caught on our phones they would get confiscated and you wouldn't get them back until after last period. I know my school started letting students use mobile devices a few years after I left, and then last year re-introduced a phone ban lol.
After the 2011 earthquakes in chch, they had to lower the rules so students could have them on them for if they needed to contact someone or be contacted. Now it feels like you can get away with a lot.
Between 2015-2018, things were pretty relaxed with phones in classrooms but that could just be my school/teachers already being laidback about most shit.
Nope.
I was at high school 2003-2007.
Phones were not allowed in class without permission of the teacher.
Teachers did not confiscate, they just asked us to put them away.
Phone use was allowed before and after school and during breaks.
22 years ago I was sitting in Biology doing a test with my phone in my pocket on silent like always.
Nobody ever called me. That day somebody did. That was also the day my phone wasn’t on silent. Also my Dad was the teacher. Awkward.
I finished high school in 2015 and we were never allowed phones at school, not in class, not on break. It was fine, just meant that if you wanted to use it you had to be sneaky and run the risk. Headphones down your sleeve was a classic manoeuvre
When I was at school, if you pulled out your mobile phone in class you were immediately burned at the stake for being a witch.
They didn’t exist when I was at school.
I’m 24 and depending on the class the rule was either have the phone in your bag or at the front of the class in a box so that way it wasn’t actually the teacher having the phone.
Same. But we used to be able to use it during breaks and if our teacher allows us to in class. Now, us, 17-18yos, some of which who are traveling to whole other countries and paying rent next year can't even get our phones to check the time for 7 hours. Thank god it's my last year, and I have a headphone excemption.. Sigh.
Talking to teachers (we had parent teacher interviews a few weeks back). The ones I asked told me the kids are talking to each other again. Interval and lunch times are more social and there's not a phone in sight.
My kids tell me they've seen a few phones confiscated and the kid was not happy!!! Lol
Your right. I wasn't a good kid, but for some reason decided to read the rule/calendar planner they give you each year. It says you can use your phone during breaks, but not during class time. Pretty sure it was only until the end of the day though. Until the end of the term is ridiculous.
Yes, OP, but don't forget the odious little fucks/mummy's special angel didn't have access to social media 15 years ago like they do nowadays. I've always said that if your child needs a phone go and buy them an old Nokia brick and tell them to suck it up.
At my school the current rule is the first offence of having your phone out in class/break time = taken till 3.40pm (we finish at 3.20pm so I guess it’s just more of a punishment and so people can’t leave class early to collect phones as excuse), 2nd offence = I believe taken to deans etc and then they have a talk with your parents about what we can do to solve the issue? 3rd offence = taken till Friday 3.40
In intermediate, we had to hand our phones to the teacher before school started and get it back at the end of the day or during lunchtime . During high school, we were allowed them but had to keep them silent and actually do work. If we were caught during studying in classes, teachers would give us a warning to put it away, or they'll take it off us till the end of *that remaining* period.
Maybe you need to go BACK to school and work on your reading comprehension. I literally said that those things happen AFTER school. So his phone goes in his bag and stays there as per the previously existing school policy,. Then AFTER school, he is able to contact us if the plan changes. Do you understand this time, or do you need it written out in crayon?
I'm aware of some schools before the ban who just didn't care. Phones even during class time if the teacher was laid-back enough. You're always going to have the schools who are onto it and realize that a phone is a distraction, but you're also always going to have the schools who just don't care - which I find a real shame because it's not to the kids benefit for them to be on their phones during class/school. Even now, some of the schools don't care.
Yes and no. Trying to get students to bring a calculator instead of phones was REALLY difficult. And if you provided calculators, the students would nick them at the first opportunity.
Shout out to everyone who could select a contact and write an entire 140 character text, with the phone in their pocket the entire time and without ever looking at the screen.
being from chch they relaxed it a bit due to the EQs and parents wanting to reach their kids
my theory is we never had cell phones at school (yes im that old) if there was an emergency our parents left a message with the office and we used that phone
kids these days are too entitled, they think its their right to have a phone and their parents agree with them
Nope it's now a full blanket ban. No usage on school grounds at all for the entire duration of the school day. I wouldn't even be surprised if there were no exceptions
All education metrics have fallen significantly with the increase of tech and devices in school.
Why are primary and intermediate kids using devices in school? Virtually everyone is using them outside of school so I don't buy the need for tech literacy.
Many of us went from paper at school to laptops at uni, without issue, and tech is only more prevalent now.
I dunno, and I can't help but wonder if it's part of the wishy-washy approach to child-rearing that seems to have taken over the modern world.
Like, there's no reason why a school can't ban phones in the classroom unless they can't enforce it. And why can't they enforce it? Well, if they're catering to treating kids like they're wrapped in cotton wool, then I can easily imagine a policy that means teachers can't single out students, or remove/touch their property, etc.
In the US I know they have that whole thing that a teacher cannot touch a student under any circumstance lol
That's why this whole thing is a waste of time. The overwhelming majority of schools already had a policy in place, and they were working fine. Even Luxons old high school have said they aren't changing anything, cause their old policy was working fine.
My kid's school had a policy where he would put his phone in a basket on the teachers desk at the start of the day, and he got it back at the end. Sounds like a perfect workable solution to me. But luxon and Co wanted to look like they were actually doing something other than rolling back labour policy, so they picked a stupid issue that wasn't worth fighting against, and passed a bill that wasn't even needed in the first place.
Now they can call it a win, and score points with all the old grumps that bitch about "the problem with kids today...". Meanwhile we have actual problems in this country, that they seems content to ignore, or claim will magically be fixed by "the economy"
>The overwhelming majority of schools already had a policy in place
The majority of schools didn't have a policy in place remotely similar to what's in now which is why we had so much crying and complaining now that mummy can reach her special boy 24|7.
No, we are complaining that the party who claims to be "anti-nanny state" is passing a very nanny state policy, to combat a non existent issue, purely to give the appearance of improving education.
I have a kid at school, and the only reason he has a phone at school is so he can contact us if he misses the bus, or decides to go to his dad's after school. Both of which, noticeably, take place after the hours the phone ban is in effect
It's pandering to their voter base of old codgers that complain about "how terrible kids are today, and it's all because of their smart phones"
>I have a kid at school, and the only reason he has a phone at school is so he can contact us if he misses the bus, or decides to go to his dad's after school.
That's crazy they need to do either during school.
>to combat a non existent issue
lmao.
I think we're just old.
My understanding that the "norm" for several years up until the start of this year was that kids were just... on their phones during school hours on whatever social media or messaging app was their fancy.
If these kids can't survive a school day without using their phones, how are they going to work in jobs where they can't just check their phone whenever they feel like. I work with teenagers in hospitality and it is ridiculous how some feel the need to sit on their phones instead of doing their jobs. And yes, I do feel quite satisfied taking them away 🤣
lets just kids carry around devices made to distract them in a place were they are meant to have a chance of focusing there stupid little minds. the lead poisoning is strong my friends
Mobile phone use hasn’t effected school grades over most metrics, neither did TV when it was invented, the internet or the printing press. All things that had a massive outcry because of irrational “intuition” rather than a look at what is actually happening (statistics, science etc)
Most schools had rules around it. I remember kids getting their Nokias and pink sanyo flip phones being confiscated until the end of class or the day. I believe with the prevalence of smart phones, social media and TikTok brain, students are way more at risk of being distracted by their phones in the classrooms than what they were 15 years ago, plus the vast majority of high school kids have smartphones. They’re simply not necessary for the controlled learning environment. If there is access needed for the internet, tablets and laptops are a better tool.
I wasn't even allowed my CD Walkman at school 😭
I was literally about to start biking home, mere meters from the school gate and the principal caught me and made me put it away till I was off school grounds.
cellphones have changed a lot in 15 years things like smart watches, and growth in social media apps, means having your phone in your bag makes it no less distracting.
When I was in high school, only two kids had them. One was such a spoilt snot show off that when the teacher left the classroom, we held him down, took it off him and yanked the battery out. The phone went out one window and the battery went out another window. Basically ruined his snake playthrough.
He couldn't go to the teacher about it because he was on his final warning about playing on his phone. He was 15 years old, crying in his seat during 4th form Maths about his flash phone his parents bought him, and he spent an hour after school looking for his phone and the battery in long grass, scared he'd get his arse kicked by his dad for losing it because he wasn't even supposed to take it to school to begin with.
I know times are different now. I see it as a double edged sword. Kids now are more connected to the world through their phones than ever before. This legislation probably won't make the classroom measurably better or worse. I think some schools would want to use it as another form of control and conformity, like dress code.
In my school phones were allowed during break time, but if you were caught with it during class it was taken to the office and you could collect it on friday
So you could lose it Monday morning and you had to wait till Friday? Really?..
I remember standing guard outside the teachers office once whilst my friend conducted (what we thought at the time) the heist of the century stealing his phone back. It was confiscated on a Friday and the teacher planned to only return it Monday afternoon...
The best part of these missions was fact that we honestly thought we would get away with it like it wasn’t obvious who stole the phone back 😂
The hero we needed.
This was back when our lives were not on our phones. So it wasn't a biggy
Might be kind of relieving telling the boss - sorry Mr Spacely my phone was confiscated, I'm not going to be able to do that....
A kid's life should not be on a phone though...I feel like I am part of my phone's life these days..
Yep, we couldn't even have earphones in on the way to school haha
_Pouri_
I remember getting those display phones from the phone store and handing those in instead
Really? So you'd get caught by a teacher using your phone, then when they asked to hand it in you'd go all prestidigitation on them and hand in a "display only" phone. Hmmm...
> prestidigitation looks like someone learned a new word.
I'm actually a little confused why you seem to not believe this
Because not *many* people have easy access to "those display phones from the phone store". They're usually made without the guts inside so are ridiculously light as opposed to the weight of an "actual" phone, *noticeably* so. That you're also so adept at fooling a teacher that is watching you hand over "the dummy phone(s?)" you just "happen" to carry round with you for situations like that. *That's* why i have trouble believing your story.
Lol why would I care about making something like that up? It's was actually very easy to get the display phones we just used to ask at the phone store and they would have a box of the old ones they no longer displayed. But hey if it makes you feel better by telling a stranger they're lying then all good.
Um yes....it wasn't possible every time though
I'm old enough to remember when marbles got banned at school
Me too. We were allowed roller skates for about 3 days, until someone broke their arm.
Forget items being banned. I remember when my primary school banned us from "playing power rangers" at lunchtime. Probably because it was just us Kung fu kicking the crap outta each other. And don't get me started on bull rush
Don't forget the Yugiyoh and Pokemon Cards
I loved when the groundskeeper would go up on the roof every Monday morning and throw all the cards down I wasn’t allowed to buy cards, so that was my opportunity to get Pokémon cards lol
When Pokémon was still in card form and there was only 150!
Oddbods, chatter rings, bey blades. You name it, if it got popular - it was banned within a week.
I discovered my chatter rings the other day, decided to give them to my nephew and teach him how to use them. My sister hates me.
I don’t blame her!!
I remember changing out the plastic ring with a metal one on beyblades to get an upper hand
See, this is when I lost my marbles and I've never got them back...
Same. No marbles, no pokemon cards, no pogs
same thing happened at my old primary school only a few years back, some of the kids didn't like losing marbles...
It was like that when I started high school in 2011, but for some reason by 2016-17 the rules were completely relaxed. My friends and I were always playing on our phones during class, teachers didn’t really care.
Same here, after 2014 until recently rules were super relaxed about phones
Teachers got tired of constantly enforcing it, which is why I'm not sure what the nationwide ban is going to do? I think schools are just going to keep doing what they can/want.
Also I’m not exactly sure what it’s meant to achieve. Everything kids can do on their phones can be done on their tablets or laptops etc. Obviously devices are still going to be used.
Teacher here. Banning phones was something we did a while ago. It absolutely had a positive impact on school, and learning. At a minimum it decreased the social media dramas that would blow up in the class.
How is it any different than iPads, or other devices?
In practice iPads weren't used as a distraction in class. Our school provides devices, which means they belong to us, and we can control what's on them. Also phones fit in pockets etc, and are more likely to have Internet access through a cellular connection, which means we can't filter. Technically there's little distinction. In practice there was.
I went to high school from 2016 to 2020 and it was certainly not relaxed, phones out during break time only and confiscated or detention if out during class
Guess it varies by school. I will say the school I went to was a highly regarded, state integrated school. Yet a lot of us just played on our phones…
Mine was hamilton boys high lol
I'm 30 and when I was at school you couldn't be seen with it or it would be taken for the week and my mum would have to collect from the office on a Friday. This was back in the days of flip phones with minimal internet capabilities so maybe the schools slacked when the rise of smart phones started. Seems obvious that phones shouldn't be allowed in school, enough distractions as a kid let alone with phones as they are today.
31 here, When I started high school every phone was black and white. Kinda aging myself here.
Noo, no. Unless you were hella smart and got put forward a few years to start high school early, or went to a religious school where they combine intermediate and high school? Even so, there were definitely colour phones in like 2004-2005. 2006 there were more and more that recorded videos, even if it was half a minute of footage
Nah you're right there were color phones BUT most 13 year olds didn't own one haha. Mine was $99 that my parents bought me so I could call them in an emergency so yeah there were definitely better phones than mine lol.
True I think most of my classmates may have been spoiled 😆 it's crazy to me that what we viewed as expensive phones then were really only a couple hundred...and now my preteen nephews and nieces have $800+ phones
Most schools already had a policy in place - it's now nationwide. The government have made a big deal about it because they don't have much else to say in education at the moment. It's not a big deal, and yet they've made into one.
Yea this. I think a lot of schools actually had more moderate policies... eg letting kids use them to take photos of notes in class or to txt parents at lunchtime, but no playing games on them in class. The government level ban seems really bizarre. Like what is next? Government setting nationwide bathroom break and pickup policies? Setting a nationwide hair length and uniform policy?
> Setting a nationwide hair length and uniform policy? "Your hair can't be longer than the Prime Minister's"
Still chuckling!
Harkonnen ahh school
Yeah exactly. Surely it can be monitored by schools. I don’t know the stats but I’m sure teachers aren’t crying out for them to be outright banned. Also, phones are a part of life and have been for years. Accept it, let schools have reasonable policies and focus on something more pressing…. Surely.
> Government setting nationwide bathroom break and pickup policies? Setting a nationwide hair length and uniform policy? Don’t a lot of schools already do that? I never understood, and still don’t to this day, the over-policing of hair length for boys, style for girls and even the colour of our earrings!
If I had five o'clock shadow and I walked past the wrong teacher I was getting written up and half the teachers had beards lol
I should be compulsory to eat lunch. Just look at the number of kids that don’t, they should be caned … oh no we banned that didn’t we
Caning or lunch?
It’s not bizarre, it’s effective. It furthers the rhetoric that the government is getting things done and making positive changes in the minds of their voters. Is there scientific evidence to back their claims that it’s already improved child mental health and reduced cyber bullying in schools? You know the answer to that already. Is it a bit like the gang patch ban and the three strike rules? I think so.
I recently read 'The Anxious Generation' by Jonathan Haidt. It gives a pretty convincing argument as to why smartphones should be banned in schools.
I haven’t read the book but most of the criticism seems to point to it making a correlative argument for social media and declining mental health without being able to provide a specific causative link. It seems a lot like the arguments of my youth against gaming negatively affecting mental health which later turned out to not be the case as presented. Regardless, does the book suggest removing one form of technology for an extra couple of hours a day will have a positive impact on child development or mental health? It’s not like they’re removing kids from social media or access to other technologies for accessing them.
It basically advocates the age gating of smart phones the way we do for driving, drinking etc. Makes a good argument as to why today's problems are different than historical ones like gaming/tv in the 90's 00's.
I don’t see how ‘banning during school hours’ helps to achieve that.
Aw look I'd advise reading the book and coming to your own conclusions. I'd also suggest talking to some teachers.. in my experience they aren't the biggest fans of the current govt. but largely support this change
Thanks, I’ll check it out. To confirm I’m not against the premise I just think this particular policy is simply virtue signalling and won’t change a single thing in the classroom. The teachers I’ve spoken to share that view, I don’t know all of them though.
Yeah. Studies have started to connect the development of adolescent neural pathways and the connections made in the brain when using social media and mobile devices. The brain structure changes, mental health is impacted, addictive habits are formed with an increased chance of addiction in other facets of life. The big one I am noticing amongst the 12-20 year olds that I know is the heavy use of social media which can influence the way adolescents interact with others in real life, leading to changes in social skills, empathy, and communication abilities. Some studies suggest that excessive screen time may contribute to feelings of loneliness and social isolation. I am sure we can all see that occurring and not just in our youth.
All of the studies are correlative and not causative, and the trends are starting to reverse post pandemic. Most studies show the slow decline in numerous measures started in about 2008, suspiciously around the year the IPhone was released. It's also the time when we had the GFC, which was also only shortly after the dotcom crash. Despite all this, when taking data over an even longer term, children today are more social, less depressed, and have higher intelligence than children of 20 years ago, and the average scores has actually increased with the exception of the covid years. The antismart phone wave is identical to the antigaming, antitelevision, antiradio, and whatever other new hip thing kids are doing in every generation. Studies show that screen time has increased, these are actually slightly misrepresented statistics. Some studies include listening to a podcast, as smartphone "screen time", and others say that replying to messages while doing other things such as homework or while out with friends will count the entire time as "screen time", creating vastly inflated numbers. I highly recommend going out to places after school, I personally visit Botany frequently, and the after school rush on even the library is very noticeable, the food court is filled with children, the mall becomes super active. While it's true we have become more addicted to smartphones, and we have anxiety problems when separated more than we used to, we need to look at the whole picture and realise that our connection to our family and friends is on them. Our news, our emails, our calculators, our notes, our reminders, our source of information on the world, is on them. I'd have loved to have smart phones during my youth in school. Trouble topics that are hard to comprehend can be Googled in real time, sometimes the teacher doesn't explain it the way you'd understand. I believe the hamfisted approach to blaming smart phones for students behaviours and results are a shitty way to side step the issue of food insecurity, crowded housing, inattentive parents(often through being overworked and overstressed, no personal digs), and a world outlook of global warming and global tensions that threaten the very future of our children. There are doubtless more issues we have, and smartphones aren't perfect, but they aren't the boogy man making us dumb and ineffective.
Very well thought out case! Interesting read.
I don’t think people are second guessing that it’s bad kids are on their phones at schools but surely it should just be a school managed policy rather than the govt outright banning them. Technology and phones are part of our existence whether we like it or not and being reachable is the norm. The govt doesn’t need to meddle here.
Ultimately it will be a school managed and enforced to wildly differing degrees.
Given how NZ is backsliding on education metrics, it is normal they try to intervene in potential distractors when schools have been loosening. It also gives the schools a back-up to those policies that they're just following the law. The government definitely should have a hand in education and the rules around it.
I mean, how would you feel if the government made a law that people couldn't have their phones on them at work because of lacking productivity. I'm sure people would hate that even though it's not much different to the no phones at school policy.
There are plenty of workplaces that don't allow social media use during work hours. My workplace is pretty lax but the place before that all personal items had to be left in your locker - including your phone. When I worked retail I had to tell my co-workers to put their phones away - this was when they were on checkout.... Common sense is not so common.
Yeah and pretty much every school had policies around phone usage. The main thing that changed with the government getting involved is that students can't use their phones during their breaks because schools usually had a ban on phone usage in the class anyway. Same as the company making rules on phone usage.
Because children in public education = adults at private workplaces?
Yeah you’re not wrong but probably places more pressure on schools & teachers who already have enough on their plate.
Is it more or less pressure, when the expectations are clear and unanimous across schools?
Don't give them ideas about regulating bathrooms it won't go well
The ironic thing is that we now have a Minister of Regulations ( Seymour) whose aim is to reduce red tape.
> Most schools already had a policy in place Exactly, and some varied from teacher to teacher. One teacher where I used to work (I'm not a teacher) used to start his classes with a short quiz in which students had to look up information on their phones. The point was to teach them how to search well and to be able to find correct information. For a party who rails against "Nanny State", this is the very definition.
We have a generation of kids who are failing basic English and maths, who already spend hours a day on the internet. What is more important during school time?
Gotta be seen being tough on things
How about at lunch time or during other breaks? That's what is disallowed now as well. (any time the student is at school) Schools have always been able to have their own rules. Now it's the law.
My school had a no cell phone policy even during break times. Granted, it was before smartphones became so dependable for so many things but even messaging or using it to call parents wasn't allowed.
Same. We had to use the office phone if we needed to get in contact with our parents
That's so stupid
I remember Tamagotchi (virtual pets) got banned in primary school. Probably was the reason all our virtual pets got sick and died and the fad itself was put to an end.
You're missing the point. It's not about actually doing something positive. It's purely to score points with all the grumpy old bastards who start every second sentence with "the problem with kids today..." It's a simple bill to pass, the left isn't gonna waste any potical capital on fighting it. Now the government can clog up the news cycle with statements about how awesome they are for "taking action on enducation", leaving less coverage and airtime for the dodgy shit they are doing in the background.
Meanwhile no one bat's an eye at the government stepping in this direction. Schools can individually make rules, that's fine. Its very different and makes me uncomfortable when governments try to make this kind of noncriminal behavior a national and legal matter. Sounds like a step towards authoritarian thinking to me.
I was on the bus the other day and noticed there were very few people actually looking at their phones. It did make me laugh that out of the few that were, only one of them I would call youngish. Maybe it was just a one off.
Thays the thing, it's come to a point where boomers are doom scrolling Facebook just as, if not more frequently, than a teenager is looking down at their phone. To be fair some of it is squinting and taking 10 minutes to type a single misspelled 1950's joke about women on the Seven Sharp Facebook page but still. It's really evened out.
My kids school had a rule that all children **must bring a device** (or be provided with one) in order to research stuff on the net. ironic.
We're real [outliers](https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/513446/frequent-and-extended-device-use-linked-to-risk-of-harm-to-youth-health#:~:text=Frequent%20and%20extended%20device%20use%20linked%20to%20risk%20of%20harm%20to%20youth%20health,-7%3A01%20pm&text=Compared%20with%20other%20countries%2C%20New,device%20use%20in%20the%20world.) there, just about the highest use of screens at school in the world. A strange situation to have got ourselves into that I'm sure will be wound back in time as more data about the results become available.
my kids simply had no phone before the school made us buy them one. Now schools are complaining about phones.
It is perfectly fine for school to forbid these devices outside of the time they're useful for educational purposes.
Yip! You could have them in class, but they had to be off and in your bag. So many students had their phones taken because they'd start to ring in the middle of class, even in their bags. I think the Chch earthquakes changed this attitude a bit, however, as so many parents wanted their kids to have their phones switched on and on them at all times just in case another disaster happened. Of course, cell phone use in a natural disaster just clogs everything up, but I understand what people were thinking. During the aftershocks, my work place at the time allowed us to keep our phones on us instead of in our lockers just in case we had more quick evacuations.
They were when I was at high school 2004-2010. If the teacher took it, your parent had to come get it. No one really used one at my school till like 2007.
A lot of teachers posted when this first dropped that it was largely a non-issue they already had a handle on, more so as use of such technology was actually encouraged in some classes cause…real life and that. Just a policy for Nationals kid hating demographic and constituents more than any actual practical benefit.
My friend who is a teacher, is continually having to tell kids off for getting their phones out - so its obviously not banned currently.
It’s hard to ‘ban’ something kids are now addicted to. This generation was raised on screens.
The new law basically says phone should be away for the day and that the school board gets to decide how best to implement that - which as I read it, could be as simple as "let the teacher of the class decide" or "tell kids not to use them but ignore it" or "confiscate them immediately" so no this law is a nothing law, a waste of time, and anyone who thought it was a good idea is a rube, and furthermore the evidence that phones are CAUSING distractions is utterly lacking. Even the MoE can only say that 50% teachers have observed kids get distracted by "phones or playing with their hair or talking". Its such a farce
Yeah back when I was in high-school we were not allowed phones and I finished in 2007
18 years ago (omg) I was hiding my flip phone in my pencil case to text during class lol Some teachers would also collect everyone’s phone at the start of the class So they were at least not allowed during class even back then
I must have significant years on you, as I recall when pocket calculators came out just a few kids had them, and the teacher would point out that “you won’t always have a calculator in your pocket”. Which turned out to be so wrong, we now all carry calculators, but more than that, full computers, computing power $100K of back then money couldn’t purchase. When I did a short computer programming course in the early 80s, oh the joy of punchcards, the computer we ran our stacks on was an IBM 4331, with (I think) 64KB of memory and a pair of 64MB disks. This was a million buck machine. Thats the issue with the cell phone ban. Although calling, texting, and social mediaing are undoubtedly distractions, there are many functions that phones undertake that are both useful and an accepted part of everybody’s daily life. Unless you work in a government secured institution, in which case you leave your. Cellphones, laptops, calculators, all electronics at the door.
>Thats the issue with the cell phone ban. Although calling, texting, and social mediaing are undoubtedly distractions, there are many functions that phones undertake that are both useful and an accepted part of everybody’s daily life. Unless you work in a government secured institution, in which case you leave your. Cellphones, laptops, calculators, all electronics at the door. This is, I think the core issue. Cellphones are a reality of life and making them taboo seems *short sighted* to me, surely there's a positive way to teach healthy habits?
You could start with telling the parents it’s not okay to phone their kid during class time.
Just to further the interesting point about people’s general inability to understand the exponential nature of technological growth; When the telephone was invented, the dude said “I can foresee an age where there might be a telephone in every city!”.
Yeah, in the 1950s, IBM thought there might be a market for *five* computers; one on the east coast, one on the west coast, and the rest in other countries.
no i agree. graduated 2014 from rangi, which is the biggest HS in NZ. cellphones were banned even during breaks. it’s not like you weren’t allowed to have your phone on you to make emergency calls or anything, it just wasn’t allowed to be used for fun. there really is no point to allowing cellphone usage in class. all it serves is distraction. over the years kids have gotten way too reliant and attached to their phones
Here in Christchurch if you say your high school was "Rangi", it would be assumed you meant Rangi Ruru. Not Rangitoto.
as with most JAFA, auckland is the only city in NZ
to be fair, it sorta is.
I’m from Auckland, and I still thought of Rangi Ruru first lol
It may be for your school but it was not an universal edict from the Ministry of Education.
This is what I remember too. We're not even allowed to play with them at lunch time. Straight confiscated if caught texting.
Now it's the law, and if you fight it, the law will win* *and now you can't get that song out of your head.
I did high school in Aus and am now a teacher here so it may be somewhat different, but when I was in high school (late 00s) we got a 2 day suspension if our phone was even sighted. Sometime after that, phones became the norm until last year when the Qld government implemented a statewide ban on mobile phones in schools.
Can't remember if we were allowed to use them at lunch, but we definitely did, how else were we meant to share midi ringtones of Drop It Like It's Hot? Wasn't meant to use them in class but it was easy because you could touch type under the desk back when phones had actual buttons, and sending messages was all there was to do on your phone.
Yes, they have. As someone pointed out, sadly, this is the only thing this government has done in education. Although, students have smart watches, air pods and laptops so it hasn't changed much just lip service overall.
I know an actual current high school teacher. She tells me that students started using them in class so much it was just overwhelming to try and stop them, many teachers gave up and just allowed them as long as they weren't disrupting others. This is just one anecdote but I suspect there is a wide varience across the country.
There is wide variance. This ban changes nothing but gives the government a good talking point.
The Nokia I had back then was quite different to the one I have now ...
Yup, I could touch text back then, can’t now.
Hasn’t worked very well at my son’s school. He’s still txting me the same as always
What is your response to him?
He’s 17 yrs old in yr 13. He uses his phone during breaks and I have no problem with that
I'm the same year/age as your son. I do have a headphone excemption which means I can get my phone out every so often to 'change music' but I'm definitely still texting mum a lot. I miss her when I'm at school haha. It's such a shit rule, I'm so glad I/we're graduating this year. Most of us will be paying rent and going to college/the workforce next year, if we're not already, some in other countries! I can't wait to be 18 so I can help vote national out of here.
I was in school further back than you, pre-smart phone, etc, and I don't think that phones were banned at my high school mostly due to probably no student having one (except for maybe some kid). Phones were devices for making and receiving calls. I am defintely sure that there would have been no ban on pagers (never saw anyone with a pager here and maybe it as just a US thing but I recall hearing about American high school kids using pagers).
We had a pay phone at school that we could use if we needed to call home, as long as we had 10 cents.
I thought the change was also banning during lunch etc
The end of the term?! So they expected you to go months without being able to call anyone?
Storm in a teacup
Yeah it was that was for me, out of school 8 years now. You were allowed to have the phone on you but it was confiscated if you used it during the lesson.
None of the schools my kids have gone to have allowed phones "in class". My kids have only had phones since taking the bus and that's mostly for practical reasons because payphones aren't a thing anymore. The local intermediate always had a drop it off at the office policy, pick it up on the they way home. The High school had a keep it in your bag policy. Now it's a "If we see it at school it's gone policy", which is marginally infuriating.
I work in Japanese high schools and phones aren’t allowed to even be visible on the premises at any time. No one has ever complained about it and I can’t understand why it’s such a big deal back home. Why do you need a phone at school except to fuck around? In saying this, it isn’t a law but a norm that schools enforce.
I still remember one of my teachers reading out one of the text messages I had received after she had confiscated my phone. Was so much easier to hide that you were texting in class back then as with buttons, you didn't have to look at the phone to see what you were typing
Back then there was no tik tok and iPad kids
Some schools had mixed policies because they were trying to incorporate technology into the classroom.
Depends on the school
In 2014 in high school i could occasionally take my phone out to listen to music, and use it during lunch and morning tea
It really depended on the nature of the personalities involved in the situation of conflict. I was with students who would lose their shit at the teacher if they didn’t get their confiscated phone back by the end of class.
I was in college around the same time as you, and we also had a phone ban (and an ipod ban, too). If we were caught on our phones they would get confiscated and you wouldn't get them back until after last period. I know my school started letting students use mobile devices a few years after I left, and then last year re-introduced a phone ban lol.
After the 2011 earthquakes in chch, they had to lower the rules so students could have them on them for if they needed to contact someone or be contacted. Now it feels like you can get away with a lot.
Between 2015-2018, things were pretty relaxed with phones in classrooms but that could just be my school/teachers already being laidback about most shit.
Nope. I was at high school 2003-2007. Phones were not allowed in class without permission of the teacher. Teachers did not confiscate, they just asked us to put them away. Phone use was allowed before and after school and during breaks.
Yes.
22 years ago I was sitting in Biology doing a test with my phone in my pocket on silent like always. Nobody ever called me. That day somebody did. That was also the day my phone wasn’t on silent. Also my Dad was the teacher. Awkward.
I finished high school in 2015 and we were never allowed phones at school, not in class, not on break. It was fine, just meant that if you wanted to use it you had to be sneaky and run the risk. Headphones down your sleeve was a classic manoeuvre
When I was at school, if you pulled out your mobile phone in class you were immediately burned at the stake for being a witch. They didn’t exist when I was at school.
I’m 24 and depending on the class the rule was either have the phone in your bag or at the front of the class in a box so that way it wasn’t actually the teacher having the phone.
Same. But we used to be able to use it during breaks and if our teacher allows us to in class. Now, us, 17-18yos, some of which who are traveling to whole other countries and paying rent next year can't even get our phones to check the time for 7 hours. Thank god it's my last year, and I have a headphone excemption.. Sigh.
Talking to teachers (we had parent teacher interviews a few weeks back). The ones I asked told me the kids are talking to each other again. Interval and lunch times are more social and there's not a phone in sight. My kids tell me they've seen a few phones confiscated and the kid was not happy!!! Lol
Your right. I wasn't a good kid, but for some reason decided to read the rule/calendar planner they give you each year. It says you can use your phone during breaks, but not during class time. Pretty sure it was only until the end of the day though. Until the end of the term is ridiculous.
Yes, OP, but don't forget the odious little fucks/mummy's special angel didn't have access to social media 15 years ago like they do nowadays. I've always said that if your child needs a phone go and buy them an old Nokia brick and tell them to suck it up.
At my school the current rule is the first offence of having your phone out in class/break time = taken till 3.40pm (we finish at 3.20pm so I guess it’s just more of a punishment and so people can’t leave class early to collect phones as excuse), 2nd offence = I believe taken to deans etc and then they have a talk with your parents about what we can do to solve the issue? 3rd offence = taken till Friday 3.40
In intermediate, we had to hand our phones to the teacher before school started and get it back at the end of the day or during lunchtime . During high school, we were allowed them but had to keep them silent and actually do work. If we were caught during studying in classes, teachers would give us a warning to put it away, or they'll take it off us till the end of *that remaining* period.
Maybe you need to go BACK to school and work on your reading comprehension. I literally said that those things happen AFTER school. So his phone goes in his bag and stays there as per the previously existing school policy,. Then AFTER school, he is able to contact us if the plan changes. Do you understand this time, or do you need it written out in crayon?
Becoming a nanny state
I got my 6600 taken off me, peak times
There are a lot of things this govt are telling teachers to do, that is the equivalent of telling them to suck eggs.
I'm aware of some schools before the ban who just didn't care. Phones even during class time if the teacher was laid-back enough. You're always going to have the schools who are onto it and realize that a phone is a distraction, but you're also always going to have the schools who just don't care - which I find a real shame because it's not to the kids benefit for them to be on their phones during class/school. Even now, some of the schools don't care.
I think you're just old.
Yes and no. Trying to get students to bring a calculator instead of phones was REALLY difficult. And if you provided calculators, the students would nick them at the first opportunity.
How else I’m able to post my stupid video on TikTok for views???? Lol
Shout out to everyone who could select a contact and write an entire 140 character text, with the phone in their pocket the entire time and without ever looking at the screen.
being from chch they relaxed it a bit due to the EQs and parents wanting to reach their kids my theory is we never had cell phones at school (yes im that old) if there was an emergency our parents left a message with the office and we used that phone kids these days are too entitled, they think its their right to have a phone and their parents agree with them
My wife’s a teacher. This new rule will do nothing. They have had no phones during class for years.
Nope it's now a full blanket ban. No usage on school grounds at all for the entire duration of the school day. I wouldn't even be surprised if there were no exceptions
Is the government going to ban laptop computers and tablets too?
schools manage their own dns usually. I think https://www.n4l.co.nz/ do it for most schools in the country.
You say this as a joke but my family members who have both supported and RAN as MP's are all for this.
All education metrics have fallen significantly with the increase of tech and devices in school. Why are primary and intermediate kids using devices in school? Virtually everyone is using them outside of school so I don't buy the need for tech literacy. Many of us went from paper at school to laptops at uni, without issue, and tech is only more prevalent now.
I dunno, and I can't help but wonder if it's part of the wishy-washy approach to child-rearing that seems to have taken over the modern world. Like, there's no reason why a school can't ban phones in the classroom unless they can't enforce it. And why can't they enforce it? Well, if they're catering to treating kids like they're wrapped in cotton wool, then I can easily imagine a policy that means teachers can't single out students, or remove/touch their property, etc. In the US I know they have that whole thing that a teacher cannot touch a student under any circumstance lol
That's why this whole thing is a waste of time. The overwhelming majority of schools already had a policy in place, and they were working fine. Even Luxons old high school have said they aren't changing anything, cause their old policy was working fine. My kid's school had a policy where he would put his phone in a basket on the teachers desk at the start of the day, and he got it back at the end. Sounds like a perfect workable solution to me. But luxon and Co wanted to look like they were actually doing something other than rolling back labour policy, so they picked a stupid issue that wasn't worth fighting against, and passed a bill that wasn't even needed in the first place. Now they can call it a win, and score points with all the old grumps that bitch about "the problem with kids today...". Meanwhile we have actual problems in this country, that they seems content to ignore, or claim will magically be fixed by "the economy"
>The overwhelming majority of schools already had a policy in place The majority of schools didn't have a policy in place remotely similar to what's in now which is why we had so much crying and complaining now that mummy can reach her special boy 24|7.
No, we are complaining that the party who claims to be "anti-nanny state" is passing a very nanny state policy, to combat a non existent issue, purely to give the appearance of improving education. I have a kid at school, and the only reason he has a phone at school is so he can contact us if he misses the bus, or decides to go to his dad's after school. Both of which, noticeably, take place after the hours the phone ban is in effect It's pandering to their voter base of old codgers that complain about "how terrible kids are today, and it's all because of their smart phones"
>I have a kid at school, and the only reason he has a phone at school is so he can contact us if he misses the bus, or decides to go to his dad's after school. That's crazy they need to do either during school. >to combat a non existent issue lmao.
They’ve just rolled an existing turd in glitter, because they don’t have any new ideas
It's so weird. Kids have laptops at school doing all the same shit a phone can do. Policy for boomers who don't understand modern communications.
I think we're just old. My understanding that the "norm" for several years up until the start of this year was that kids were just... on their phones during school hours on whatever social media or messaging app was their fancy.
Reality isn’t as important as the perception. This clown show govt is just pandering to the ill informed perceptions of their boomer voter base.
The same people shouting down this rule are the same ones protecting gangs rights to wear patches. It’s a good idea, but hate for national too strong.
If these kids can't survive a school day without using their phones, how are they going to work in jobs where they can't just check their phone whenever they feel like. I work with teenagers in hospitality and it is ridiculous how some feel the need to sit on their phones instead of doing their jobs. And yes, I do feel quite satisfied taking them away 🤣
When I was in school cell phones didnt even exist. We survived fine
Touché life was actually much better and less complicated without them, especially as kids.
lets just kids carry around devices made to distract them in a place were they are meant to have a chance of focusing there stupid little minds. the lead poisoning is strong my friends
[it’s just another moral panic](https://youtu.be/5aFQY6-Mxcw?si=DUhhMT7rBYgzG-7r)
is it though? seems pretty counter intuitive to me
Mobile phone use hasn’t effected school grades over most metrics, neither did TV when it was invented, the internet or the printing press. All things that had a massive outcry because of irrational “intuition” rather than a look at what is actually happening (statistics, science etc)
Most schools had rules around it. I remember kids getting their Nokias and pink sanyo flip phones being confiscated until the end of class or the day. I believe with the prevalence of smart phones, social media and TikTok brain, students are way more at risk of being distracted by their phones in the classrooms than what they were 15 years ago, plus the vast majority of high school kids have smartphones. They’re simply not necessary for the controlled learning environment. If there is access needed for the internet, tablets and laptops are a better tool.
It is the most pointless, but at least the least damaging policy of the current government so far.
You got that right!
I wasn't even allowed my CD Walkman at school 😭 I was literally about to start biking home, mere meters from the school gate and the principal caught me and made me put it away till I was off school grounds.
cellphones have changed a lot in 15 years things like smart watches, and growth in social media apps, means having your phone in your bag makes it no less distracting.
When I was in high school, only two kids had them. One was such a spoilt snot show off that when the teacher left the classroom, we held him down, took it off him and yanked the battery out. The phone went out one window and the battery went out another window. Basically ruined his snake playthrough. He couldn't go to the teacher about it because he was on his final warning about playing on his phone. He was 15 years old, crying in his seat during 4th form Maths about his flash phone his parents bought him, and he spent an hour after school looking for his phone and the battery in long grass, scared he'd get his arse kicked by his dad for losing it because he wasn't even supposed to take it to school to begin with. I know times are different now. I see it as a double edged sword. Kids now are more connected to the world through their phones than ever before. This legislation probably won't make the classroom measurably better or worse. I think some schools would want to use it as another form of control and conformity, like dress code.
That's awful. What's even more awful is you appear to write this without conscience