It was time 15 years ago

The entirety of humanitys knowledge at your fingertips with the processing power to make any graphing calculator obsolete.

Get em out.

We don't need phones out of schools. We need schools that can adapt to the modern world.

I cannot respect articles like this. If you think cell phone use is the biggest obstacle Worcester students face in their education, you’re a self absorbed idiot not paying attention, or misinformed, or both.

How about a minority majority district with very few teachers that look like them and who can relate to them on a cultural or linguistic level. How about the violence that other students bring on each other. How about the terrible home life some of the kids have. How about the rotting asbestos filled school buildings they sit in every day (looking at you WEM and Columbus Park)

“Telling kids that “back in the day” we only talked to our moms in the office if she called for an emergency fell on deaf ears.”

I wonder why.

We all know that phones are more addictive than slot machines. But those ten year olds need better self control!! 😂😢😭

It is out of control.

Students need to pay attention and a smart phone is a distraction

Don’t let the perfect be the eneoof the good? Is it the biggest problem schools face? It is an easily solvable one? Absolutely

These op eds irritate me. You see them somewhere like three times a year and it’s always some gen x retiree saying the exact same thing as the last one. It’s never needed and always in poor taste. Where is the “good” to a student at WEM who feels like he has to bring a kitchen knife to school to avoid getting jumped after class? Where’s the “good” to the Grafton student who jumped off a bridge in 2018? Where’s the “good” to the students in the stolen car crash on Webster street? How about the classmates of 6 year old Candice who was run over last year? Kids have other problems, don’t waste op eds on this.

This is a rough city to be a kid in, and I don’t see op eds about the harsh reality of most students are up against nearly as much as I see brain dead battle axes wringing their hands about Apple products. Take the kids’ phones away. Go ahead. They’ll still be suffering bullying and domestic violence and homelessness. How focused on their chemistry do you think they’ll be? It’s like, “congrats you took their phones away. I hope that makes you feel like you’ve done a good job”

It’s just in really poor taste to me.

Take charge of deez nutz.

They won't really be able to appreciate the entirety of humanity's knowledge if they're too distracted by tiktok to learn to read

It's not just Gen x who feels like this it's most teachers. It's gotten out of control

A pen and paper have the capacity to be a distraction if they don't use it right.

Make it work. It's the world we living in, taking it away seams like shortsighted thinking considering it's only going to evolve and get better and better.

I dunno man. People don’t get addicted to paper and pencil like they do with smartphones

It's baffling that Doherty is getting a giant new building when those buildings exist as they are.

Real talk, don’t be a teacher then? If you can’t handle kids owning cell phones, you cannot be a teacher. I’m sorry, but that’s how the world is and educational practices need to catch up

You weren't allowed to read a magazine in class before cell phones. Same difference

real talk, our society isn't in a position to give that kind of ultimatum.

we can't make teaching an underpaid bureaucratic nightmare and then turn around and tell teachers "if you don't like it then leave". that's absurd.

classroom distractions aren't new. first it was magazines and baseball cards, then it was handhelds like tiger games and gameboys, now it's cellphones.

just because the world changes doesn't mean that classroom distractions should be back on the menu.

unless phones are integrated into the curriculum they don't need this weird rabid insistence that they be allowed in the classroom.

some mombie wanting to text her son 50 times during the school day is not a good enough reason to have a whole class subjected to the buzzing and beeping of 25 other students' non-school-related communication.

I have alot of things that I don't use in the middle of my workday. Just because kids have phones doesn't mean they should constantly be on them

Our society isn’t in a position to give the ultimatum “if you cannot work well with K-12 students you shouldn’t be a teacher”? Really?

No one said distractions are “on the menu” (whatever that means) but if you cannot engage and connect with your students and all that that implies, then no, you should not be a teacher. I’m pretty confident in what I said.

And again, how about we don’t write more brain dead op eds about phones, as if we need another one

you are equating "handeling kids owning cell phones" with "working well with k-12 kids" and it is not only disingenuous but completely ridiculous.

you can hate the op-ed without making disingenuous statements.

so you can't engage and connect with students unless you allow them to be on their phones whenever they want? that's great you're confident in what you're saying but seems kind of ridiculous to me

> cell phone use is the biggest obstacle Worcester students face in their education

Yes.

They are.

Are you a teacher?

This is such grandstanding and utter bullshit.

You want to instantly improve the environment?

Ban the cellphones.

The other stuff is monolithic and not as easily solved.

You are definitely not a teacher.

What arrogant bullshit.

You must be a member of the school committee.

This is an addiction issue. The cellphones are as addictive as nicotine.

We wouldn't allow 13-year-olds to have nicotine, so why are we allowing the cellphones?