The debate has been hot in our city of Greensboro, North Carolina over whether high school students should be allowed to have a cell phone at school. The debate is marked by fairly good point on both sides of the issue, and it makes one wonder why the subject did not come up before now. On one side, the teachers are largely against having the cell phones. This is largely due to the fact that they can be extremely distracting. The parents, on the other hand, feel that cell phones are an important lifeline to their kids in the case of an emergency.
In today’s world, it is hard to imagine anyone attempting to take away cell phones from students. In a world where school shootings and dangers have met an all time high, that cell phone could be the difference between life and death. How else could a child be in touch with their parent in an emergency. This is something that can not rightfully be argued in light of Columbine and other horrific tragedies.
On the other hand, a teacher should not have to put up with students making and receiving phone calls as they try to teach their lessons. A buzzing cell phone would test the patience of even the most liberal teacher. Also, with the modern technologies of texting and video, the chances that some students would push the envelope during class would be rather high. Teachers make a good point, but I fear they are overlooking an even greater disaster.
While both sides have a point, there is no reason why both sides can not be taken care of. Allow kids to have cell phones at school, but only if they keep them on vibrate at all times. Additionally, students can only take calls from their parents or guardians. This would solve the argument for both sides of the issue. As for students texting and surfing the Internet during class, that could be solved simply by having students place their cell phones in a basket at the end of their desk at the start of each class.
With all the problems that we have in the world today, this one is so easy to fix it is silly. Still, we have tax dollars spent on having conferences and meetings about it. We take up valuable school time with it. We argue incessantly over something that we can solve with some simple common sense. It is these types of issues that our society must change to set a better example for our kids. When an easy solution exists, accept that and do not worry about who is right or wrong.
Though the issue is technically still up in the air here in Greensboro, other towns in our State and others have already adopted these types of solutions. Hopefully we will also join in with the common sense, and move on from the childish societal arguments soon.
