HOORAH to the state government for bringing a blanket ban on mobile phones in schools.
Here’s hoping this puts an end to the regular inane texts from your children between 9am and 3pm letting you know such whatevs as A ‘you call this lunch’, B ‘I’m soooo sick’ or C ‘put $20 in my account for lunch’.
School serves multiple purposes, not least giving parents a breather from their kids, but phones have put us on 24/7 high anxiety red alert. Finally that comes to an end next year.
There will be a bunch of helicopter parents who will lose their mind at this, but I’d love to see the data showing that the addition of devices to the end of students’ arms has resulted in fewer lost/stolen kids, better learning outcomes, more resilience or improved relationships.
These phones are simply a scourge. I often talk to my smarter half about what improvements and/or efficiencies all this tech brings to our lives. The conclusion? We’re more than ever slaves to the systems being cajoled, dragged and forced to follow what is really an outrageously rapid and extreme impost on our humanity by literally two mega for-profit companies.
The longer children are shielded from this reality and get to be and act their innocent best, the better off they and we are.
As our ability to communicate gets suffocated by technology, a few formative years of uninterrupted learning in the school unimpeded by the distraction of phones can only be a good thing.
