Can You Hear Me Now?
[This is a response to Mark Franek’s op-ed on the cell phone problem in public schools]
I find this idea to be absolutely absurd; then again, my point of view is one of a kid who attends a school with 15 kids in every classroom. I attend a school where cell phones ring in the middle of silent worship and teachers merely turn away in slight disappointment. I’m sure cell phones are a much larger issue in a school with 5,000 teenagers. Now that I have opened up my eyes to the other side of this argument, I’m back to believing in its absurdity. This idea truly shows the desperateness of Mayor Bloomberg to appease both the heads of school districts, and parents of children in these schools. Someone needs to tell Bloomberg that the glass isn’t always half-full. There is no panacea to this problem and you should probably stop this silly idea before reelections come around. I happen to carry my cell-phone everywhere and taking the risk of keeping it in a foreign, public place is not a risk that I plan on taking anytime soon. I enjoyed the authors point on how obsolete the use of storage lockers is, and how maybe adults of the Happy Days era need to take a step back from where they were seated in their rocking chairs and realize that technology’s sexy and it’s all around them. I mean I would feel pretty ridiculous if Dr. Ball (our head of school) asked me to park my Mazda in a designated spot off campus and set up booby-traps around my car to “protect” it. I have to say my favorite line is in the opener where the author says, “Only in America, at the start of the new millennium, can we honestly say as a matter of public policy that we don’t want to leave any child behind—including a child without his or her cell phone.” I believe this is a pun on the phrase “never leave a man behind,” and if that’s in fact what it is making fun of, then pun-well done. I couldn’t agree with the class more in that this idea, if it came to fruition, would be way too difficult to control and open up more risks than those that are necessary. I don’t think this idea will ever actually happen, but if it does I plan on sitting back and watching Bloomberg fall to his demise.
I would like to leave you with the new cell phone advertisement, if this locker idea actually happened.
Caller: “Can you hear me now?”
Person receiving call: “No…My phones in locker B12″