To the Editor:
With the recent arrest of a student because she did not put her cellphone away fast enough in South Carolina, the conversation about electronics in the classroom is growing.
There really is a very simple, common-sense solution to the use of electronic communication by school students during school: Ban it.
I was a teacher years ago, before such phones existed, and frankly I could not imagine them in the hands of students while I was teaching.
But what I really am confused about is why parents even allow their children to take phones with them to school, and why teachers permit students to have phones in their classrooms. Despite all my son’s whining, I made sure he never had a cellphone of his own until he left high school, which did not hurt him at all. If I were still teaching, all my students would have to leave their phones in a separate location upon entering the classroom, or be absolutely required to have them turned off.
There is one simple certainty. No phones equals no problems of this type.
Problem solved.
James Steamer
State College, Pa.
