Is it a necessity to bring cell phone to school?!

From a school principal’s opinion:

Nowadays, majority of student own a cell phone. School is district them from bringing cell phone to school and parents always come and complained to school that school should giving student permission bring phone to school just because parent can contact their children easily and their children can make emergency call just in case something serious happened. But, parents should understand why school blocking student bring phone to school.

            Firstly,  school always giving the best study surroundings to our student. If student bring cell phone to school, they cannot concentrate while teacher is teaching in front just because they are checking their  inbox and maybe they will play some games in classroom. This shows irrespective to teacher and they cannot focusing well even they are not texting or playing games because sometimes they will distracted by the ringing or the vibrating of the phone or by reading a text message.

            Beside that, cell phone can be used as cheating devices . In addition, there is growing unease about the inappropriate use of mobile phones  and the many functions available on them, such as cameras. A recent survey in the United  States revealed that over 80% of students now cheat by copying homework or exam papers  with their mobile phone cameras. This might be so unfair on giving marks for the student who are using phone cameras doing homework and student without using phone cameras doing homework.

            Thirdly, case of stealing will increases. For some students who are not affordable to own a cell phone, they will feeling unbalance so they will try to get a cell phone by stealing from their classmate or friends.  Expensive phones like the Droid and the iPhone act as prime targets for thieves who want to possess the latest technology available. As a result, these valuables tempt student to resort to extremes such as stealing, because they feel as though their cell phones seem inadequate compared to today’s standards.

            Overall, schools should ban the use of cell phones in school. Cell phones use increases school crime, detracts from learning, and encourages cheating. In general, this technology seems more detrimental than beneficial to students and their education. Therefore, student should not bring their cell phone to school.

From an English language teacher’s opinion:

In my opinion, I think that many kids these days have cell phones bring many of the disadvantages. You often see teenagers talking on their phones or texting. It has become a part of everyday life and a part of their society. Many teenagers and pre-teens get cell phones younger than age 12. It is encouraged socially especially among teenagers to have a phone and many teenagers get phones just because of peer pressure.

Cell phone brings many of the disadvantages such as excessive amounts of texting. One big issue concerning cell phones and teenagers is the use of cell phones in school. Cell phones should not be allowed during school because they would provide distractions for students and teachers. If a student’s cell phone rang during class, it would obviously distract him from the class and whatever the teacher is teaching. It would also certainly be distracting for the teacher-trying to talk over students who are talking when they are. One of the best ways to get in trouble during class is to talk when the teacher is talking, for it distracts the teacher, the student, and their classmates. If cell phone were allowed in school, they would increase the amount of time students are talking when they don’t need to, making the class more difficult to teach, take longer, and be less educational.

Cell phones could also provide a means of cheating on tests. Almost all cell phones have texting and kids have become good at texting without getting caught. It would be easy for kids to text each other the answers to tests during testing sessions if everyone is allowed to use their phone during class. One teacher had a story about a class he used to teach in. Some of the kids began to learn sign language. The teacher thought it was good that they were doing something new and different until he found out that they were using sign language to cheat on tests. Cell phones in school would condone cheating on tests, allowing for teens to get unfair test grades, and would only prove detrimental in preparation for college and life in the real world.

Besides that, young people can be very competitive, fighting for popularity among their peer group. This can manifest itself into stealing if a particular individual brings an especially expensive cell phone to school. The last thing you want to do is to tempt the would-be thieves by sending your child to school with a piece of equipment that make him or her target. Lockers are more likely to be broken into, for example, if they know there is something of value in there.

All in all, as an English teacher view, schools will be a better learning environment and better prepare students for life in the outside world if cell phones are continued to be banned during school day.

From a parent’s opinion:

As a parent from school community, I used to agree with the statement that allowing students to bring cell phone to school. Although there would be pros and cons, as a parent, I would like to grasp the situation of children in school. Therefore, I wish that my children will be allowed to bring cell phone to school because cell phones have created a convenience that was previously unavailable.

            There are many advantages if students bring cell phone to school. Parents can be in touch with their children and know their whereabouts. For example, there will always have some school activities after school. In this case, if children be notified in urgent, they can reach their parents in this event of an emergency. Moreover, if our children are in danger, they can reach the authorities or a medical provider easily. Parents will feel more relieved as they can contact their children at anytime and anywhere.

            Other than that, students can search for important information during class period. Students may be satisfied to become knowledge experts as they can serve for information that they do not understand with. Furthermore, when engaging students with literacy activities, it was also important for them to realize that words could have different meanings and different shades of meaning. Therefore, cell phone not only used for communication between parents and their children in school, cell phone also playing a role of portable dictionary and encyclopedia.

            Besides, if a student is slow to copy notes from the board, they can take pictures of the missed notes and accessed later. Other than picture taking, recording also can be used to record teacher’s teaching. These pictures and records can be even send to absent classmates so that they will not missed the class when they absent. Students can also send missed assignments to classmates that are absent through massage texting.

            In conclusion, using cell phone in school has a number of pros. As a parent from school community, I would probably agree with my children to bring cell phone to school because it brings advantages to students in school nowadays. However, parents should cooperate with the school to prevent any misuse of cell phone that may bring menace to children that attend school to pursuit of knowledge. 

Written by,

Chong Yu Chen

Rachel Wong 

Cindy Lim