Bloomberg's being deliberately obtuse again.

[conuly]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he is sticking by the cell phone ban.

"You can't use cell phones in schools, you can't use iPods. Why can't you get the message? They're just not appropriate," he says.

For the LAST FUCKING TIME - nobody is saying they should be calling people and chatting on their cell phones during school time. Everybody is saying that the reasonable alternative is the one kids already use - turn off the cell phone the second you enter the building, and keep it off until you leave.

This way, if your mom needs to call you to tell you to hurry home and take the chicken out of the freezer, she can - after school.

I fail to see what's so difficult about this concept that he's not getting.

Comments

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

It could be that he simply doesn't trust the students to turn the phones off, or keep them turned off.

[conuly]

Then he ought to say that, instead of saying things which make no sense.

At any rate, that's already been addressed - only confiscate the phones of people who are using them when they shouldn't be.

Really, this isn't exactly rocket science.

[stejcruetekie.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but I 100% agree with the ban.

You're "alternative" doesn't work - it's NOT something that kid's "already use". They *can* - but they don't.

Leave the phones at home. Or check them in at the door.

[conuly]

Except that they do. And if they don't, then it's logical that the phones be confiscated.

[conuly]

That is to say, it's logical to only confiscate the phones of those students who are using them during class hours.

Similarly, you're not allowed to wear non-religious hats in school. (Another rule I find absurd, but I digress.) The solution there has never been "remove all hats from students at the door, and have them completely confiscated" but "tell the students who are wearing hats to take them off, and only confiscate the hat if they keep having it on after you've told them to take it off several times".

[literalgirl.livejournal.com]

As a parent who is about to get their child a cell phone, I find it completely ridiculous that something I would buy for my son as a SAFETY MEASURE would be restricted by his school. Turn it off, yes. TAKE IT AWAY when I have paid for it in order to be able to find out where my 13-year-old autistic child is, or let him know if I am late picking him up? Outrageous.

Itis not like the pathetic public schools are going to hand-carry messages out to the throng of kids waiting for their parents to pick them up, so I can't wait until some kid gets hurt, lost, kidnapped, or injured, who would otherwise have been able to be contacted by a parent. Can't wait. Because it's stupid, and an invasion of privacy. Once my kid is off the school grounds, if I need to reach him and I've paid for the privilege, then they have no right to make that impossible.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Possibly the kids who refuse to get that concept either.

(Don't tell me there aren't any--there are always some who deliberately refuse to abide by the rules, whether concerning running in the hallways, eating in class, or foulmouthing the teacher to his/her face.)

[conuly]

Of course there are. And they wouldn't be detered by anything, so why make rules that affect *everybody* based on them?

[wodhaund.livejournal.com]

I do believe this is the first time I've seen you say something like "fuck". o.o

[conuly]

Oh, I've definitely typed it before. I just try to save emphatic things for, y'know, emphasis.

BTW... speaking of iPods!

[literalgirl.livejournal.com]

At the awesome school Bolt's just been accepted to, they specialize in working with kids with various LDs, and use a LOT of creative and useful assistive technology. I'd like to point out that these kinds of tools can ALSO be used constructively with the general ed population, and I think it sucks that you HAVE to be LD in order for districts (or schools in general) to appreciate their use.

Bloomberg would clearly be too ignorant to even COMPREHEND that fact that some kids might perform BETTER while writing essays or working on projects with their iPods DEPLOYED, but it is absolutely true. Sometimes kids just need to able to learn techniques for mediation of the nervous system in order to enhance their performance, and thank god Bolt's new school GETS THIS. They even made a point of talking about it during the parent tour!

I can't wait for September. The sophistication of this school has me all aflutter!

Re: BTW... speaking of iPods!

[conuly]

I remember how stunned I was to realize I actually paid *better* attention in class, and learned more (in classes where this was an issue) if I was playing freecell or solitaire or minesweeper on my computer.

Re: BTW... speaking of iPods!

[conuly]

Oh, and tell him congrats on the school! I was waiting with bated breath to find out what happened with that, but then I wasn't online for a few days.

[deceptica]

How in the world did any of us survive before the invention of the mobile phone...

[(Anonymous)]

What I find funny was that when I was 15, no one wanted to be "the kid with the cell phone." It meant your parents were overprotective, if they wouldn't let you go out with your friends without taking the cell phone (of course the family ony had one cell phone) along. (Also that they had more money than sense.) There was usually one kid in the group in this position, and everyone made fun of him.

[(Anonymous)]

I wonder that myself, all the time! It has certianly made life much better for me. We use them for sending grocery lists, finding each other in malls or Disneyland and places like that, sending addresses or phone numbers that one of us needs, etc. Just today I sent MTB the addresses for three Cingular stores near where he was driving - incredibly useful data he'd otherwise have had to drive around to find a public phone and called 411 to acquire.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

It could be that he simply doesn't trust the students to turn the phones off, or keep them turned off.

[conuly]

Then he ought to say that, instead of saying things which make no sense.

At any rate, that's already been addressed - only confiscate the phones of people who are using them when they shouldn't be.

Really, this isn't exactly rocket science.

[stejcruetekie.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but I 100% agree with the ban.

You're "alternative" doesn't work - it's NOT something that kid's "already use". They *can* - but they don't.

Leave the phones at home. Or check them in at the door.

[conuly]

Except that they do. And if they don't, then it's logical that the phones be confiscated.

[conuly]

That is to say, it's logical to only confiscate the phones of those students who are using them during class hours.

Similarly, you're not allowed to wear non-religious hats in school. (Another rule I find absurd, but I digress.) The solution there has never been "remove all hats from students at the door, and have them completely confiscated" but "tell the students who are wearing hats to take them off, and only confiscate the hat if they keep having it on after you've told them to take it off several times".

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Possibly the kids who refuse to get that concept either.

(Don't tell me there aren't any--there are always some who deliberately refuse to abide by the rules, whether concerning running in the hallways, eating in class, or foulmouthing the teacher to his/her face.)

[conuly]

Of course there are. And they wouldn't be detered by anything, so why make rules that affect *everybody* based on them?

[wodhaund.livejournal.com]

I do believe this is the first time I've seen you say something like "fuck". o.o

[conuly]

Oh, I've definitely typed it before. I just try to save emphatic things for, y'know, emphasis.

BTW... speaking of iPods!

[literalgirl.livejournal.com]

At the awesome school Bolt's just been accepted to, they specialize in working with kids with various LDs, and use a LOT of creative and useful assistive technology. I'd like to point out that these kinds of tools can ALSO be used constructively with the general ed population, and I think it sucks that you HAVE to be LD in order for districts (or schools in general) to appreciate their use.

Bloomberg would clearly be too ignorant to even COMPREHEND that fact that some kids might perform BETTER while writing essays or working on projects with their iPods DEPLOYED, but it is absolutely true. Sometimes kids just need to able to learn techniques for mediation of the nervous system in order to enhance their performance, and thank god Bolt's new school GETS THIS. They even made a point of talking about it during the parent tour!

I can't wait for September. The sophistication of this school has me all aflutter!

Re: BTW... speaking of iPods!

[conuly]

I remember how stunned I was to realize I actually paid *better* attention in class, and learned more (in classes where this was an issue) if I was playing freecell or solitaire or minesweeper on my computer.

[deceptica]

How in the world did any of us survive before the invention of the mobile phone...

[(Anonymous)]

What I find funny was that when I was 15, no one wanted to be "the kid with the cell phone." It meant your parents were overprotective, if they wouldn't let you go out with your friends without taking the cell phone (of course the family ony had one cell phone) along. (Also that they had more money than sense.) There was usually one kid in the group in this position, and everyone made fun of him.