Clear Backpacks + Pay to Keep Your Phone

[u/TheAeroplaneBear2906]

My freinds school is now requiring these items, and is also using AI to promote this 🫠

[u/BKlounge93]

I mean I went to an underfunded high school years ago. You get caught on your phone, teacher takes it away. Happens more than once or twice, your parents get a call. Idk why it’s so hard.

[u/Humble-Cook-6126 → u/BKlounge93]

I dont think the parents care or agree anymore.

[u/atuck217 → u/Humble-Cook-6126]

As a parent, though admittedly my child is currently too young to have a phone, I would be pissed about the pouches. You are the adult in the situation and teaching them discipline is part of the job. If they pull out their phone at an inappropriate time, you tell them to put it away as a warning. They do it again, you confiscate it and tell the parents.

If my child has an emergency or even just wants to send me a text in the middle of the day at an appropriate time like between classes or something, they should not have to deal with the pouch.

I'd be protesting this if it was at my childs school.

[u/YUNoJump → u/atuck217]

You have a point, but also the reality is that kids are always gonna misbehave to some degree, and dealing with that wastes a lot of teacher time. Their primary job is to teach a lesson, and support students in learning it. If it takes time to discipline kids or deal with distractions like phones, that means less time the teacher has to actually teach things.

The pouches mean that if a phone is seen at all, the teacher can instantly say "you're doing the wrong thing" and send the kid to admin or whatever, minimal class disruption. If your kid needs to communicate with you, then the school has ways to contact you. With no pouches, it becomes a lot easier for a kid to waste time arguing; "it just fell out of my pocket/bag", "I was just turning it off", etc etc.

It'd be great if kids just did the right thing and teachers didn't have to worry about discipline, but that's hard to achieve. In the meantime, systems that minimise disruptions mean that kids can get a better education.

[u/sorry_con_excuse_me → u/YUNoJump]

Yeah but I don’t understand the issue. Are students actually disrupting class by being on their phones, or are they just not paying attention (hurting themselves)?

We didn’t have smart phones, but we just doodled or stared out the window. I’m not sure why it’s suddenly different with a phone.

It will be reflected in the kids’ grades and it’s up to the parents to deal with that. It’s not really the teacher’s or school’s problem if it’s just a matter of not paying attention.

I guess what I don’t get is on the one hand people are like “it’s not the teacher’s job to babysit” and then on the other hand “let’s babysit the kids’ phone use.” Like idk man, maybe just let them fail and learn the hard way.

[u/zecfrid → u/sorry_con_excuse_me]

Here is the thing. We can let students fail(which we do in high school), but that student who is failing is still sucking up resources. It’s still costing tax payers money to have the teacher in the room, run the AC, keep the lights on, maintain the school, etc. the introduction of smart phones has also led to worse outcomes across the board for students.

And yes, as a teacher, I can tell you students in their phone in class is disruptive to those around them. Before phones were banned in my state, I don’t know how many times a student would text others, airdrop shit to everyone in the class, or just start playing audio from their phone. Like others have said, the pouch sets an expectation that is easy to enforce. Phone not in pouch? It’s mine.

[u/YUNoJump → u/sorry_con_excuse_me]

It’s not the teacher’s job to babysit, but unfortunately that’s what they have to do when the alternative is “the child doesn’t learn anything”. And obviously the teacher’s job is to help kids learn things.

I think there’s an important difference here between “fail” and “learn a lesson from a mistake”. It’s easy to goof off in class and end up failing the term, but if the kid doesn’t actually shape up and do better after that, then they’re just gonna keep falling behind until they’re incompetent in critical skills like literacy, poorly prepared for entering the real world of adulthood.

There’s no way to ensure a kid learns that lesson themselves, so the next best thing is to ensure it doesn’t become a habit. Unfortunately parents don’t always play an active role in teaching kids discipline or assisting with their schooling, so it falls to schools to play that role.

And of course, the kicker is that if a kid flunks school because he goofs off on his phone all day, the school is where blame gets placed.

[u/minkdaddy666 → u/sorry_con_excuse_me]

That's one of the core issues, they aren't letting kids fail