Students’ cell phones must be off and put away from 8:10 to 3:23 when they are in school. So states the almighty rule that hardly anybody follows. Phones are not going to be put away, much less turned off at any time, and that includes school hours.  We have phones and we have friends and we have texting, so we combine those three things to keep in constant contact with the people we can’t see right at that very moment. Most teachers know that when they aren’t looking somebody in class probably has their phone whipped out and is already starting to text.  The texting gets even more common during passing periods and lunch time, because nobody is around to stop us.  So the new policy being considered makes sense: students can use their phones and iTouches during those times.  For me at least, there could not be a better option.

If this policy goes into place everybody will be happier.  Students who want to always be in touch with their friends can fulfill their desires during passing periods and lunch instead of during times when they are supposed to be working.  People who want to listen to their music can walk down the halls doing so without being punished.  Students with stronger morals than the rest of us will no longer have to feel guilty when texting their friends during lunch.  Teachers will get to rest their voices when there is a sudden drop off in the amount of actual texting going on during classes.  Students will no longer become disgruntled when phones are taken away.  Who wouldn’t be happy with this idea?

But of course, there are some teachers and parents question this logic.  They say that if the school allows us to text during passing periods and lunch then soon we will be using our phones all the time, even when we are in class.  I think that the opposite is true.  The thing is that this rule might change the usage a little bit, but not so that we text more during class, but less.  Yes, we are going to text.  The way the world works is that if we aren’t in always talking with our friends and people we care about we won’t hear about the new gossip or be in on the inside jokes.  So we text during school, but if we can text during lunch and passing periods we can get all caught up with each other then instead of when we are supposed to be learning.  If you ask me, or anybody else who really thinks about it, this is probably a good thing for our work ethics.

According to the latest NWN homepage poll, 67 percent of students text at some point during the school day. If anybody thinks that this policy not being passed will send a message to students that we shouldn’t text, they are way off– the majority of us already text during school.  Nobody cares about the actual rules, because getting caught is a rarity.  Also, even if students do get caught texting or listening to music every teacher deals with that differently.  Some give detentions and take away the phone and give it to the owners dean, but others wave off the usage and just tell the student to put it away.  With the inconsistent policies on cell phone usage in class, students learn which class to use their phones in and which classes to take the rules seriously in.  A simple change won’t make students think that the rules have become more lax in every class, because the rules are never the same rules anyways.

So I think changing the rules will be better for every one involved, what about you?  Comment below!