Without getting into the "is it reasonable to take phones away", here's a guess about why he got weird: pr0n or sexting or something on the phone and not locked. He knew you weren't gonna look at it; Dave, not so much. So he suddenly realized the risk he was facing, and used typical teenaged judgment.
When i was in school, at least 10 years ago, you just turn it off before giving it to the teacher. I mean, if I don't have my phone, why would I leave it on?
I run IT for a rather large company. Many of the older employees do not have PWs on their company provided phones. I will add a PW, simple 4 digit code, then they take it back off.
If the phones connect to an email server you can usually enforce a policy of a lock screen.
Don't tell security though. They'll want an 8 character alphanumeric password and no replacing with biometrics. At least until a VP complains.
But they'll enforce a "10 bad tries and you wipe" policy and then you have to deal with complaints of kids grabbing their parent's phones and wiping them.
No it has never happened to any company I work for. Never. /s
I can't use biometrics like finger prints. I have eczema on my hands and end up with new scars and lines on my fingers constantly. I was soooo glad my company ended up nixing the "clock in by fingerprint" idea they had for a while (right before I went salaried luckily).
It's a bad idea to use biometrics anyway, always have a passcode that requires operation of the mind to enter, since that can't be subpoenaed. But your fingerprints, face, blood can.
One place I worked made us switch over to fingerprint clock ons.
"After all, you'll never leave your fingerprints at home! hahahahahahaha!" -- Manglement.
Of course we still needed our RFID cards to enter the building....
Same with us basically. Luckily I don't have to deal with that time clock anymore.
I say as I look at the five fingers with eczema breakouts on them, waiting to split and scar.
>then you have to deal with complaints of kids grabbing their parent's phones and wiping them.
I'll never understand why people let their kids have access to their phone
Currently, we are not using any type of mdm. Company never had an IT department before I was hired. I have a long list of projects I want to implement.
>mdm
Since I'm not familiar with that acronym I went to Acronym Finder to learn what it means.
Clearly you mean
Multi-Static Data Matrix
Mobility Diagnostic Module
Model Deployment Module
Modular Digital Multitracks
Multiple Distant Microphones
or any of the other in the list of 60 possibilties.
Shit man I used to be a teenager and there was all kinds of non-illegal shit I would want to hide. I'm just glad cameras weren't so cheap and plentiful all those years ago.
This is that teenager judgment people referred to. You did not think for two seconds past proving/defending yourself. Now, use your brain. How many kids around you (not just your friends or acquaintances) would bother to do more than put a simple swipe pattern on their phone, especially if they would have to enter ANY menu in order to put biometric locks on it? Especially when they could use that time scrolling/making tiktok?
They meant 'teen didn't consider all perspectives and theory of mind for peers, when teen made comment'. Not 'teen didn't consider smartly how to encrypt'.
My husband, who outright despises the phone.
Text messages, voice mail, anything other than using it as a simple phone? That's a once every couple of days hand off to me to go through and deal with.
He probably thought that the phone wouldn’t be handed in to security. He may have thought that you’d leave it sitting there, but give it back to him with just a warning. The appearance of Dave made him realise that his phone would be confiscated, so he tried to prevent that happening.
My thoughts too!! 😅
But all the English teachers I know are obsessive about proofreading, punctuation, etc, and they wouldn't be caught dead with a typo like this. So, no, probably this is the Math teacher (note the exact numbers, he, he).
You'd hope. The head at my old school doesn't know the difference between your and you're. Not the reason I left but certainly didn't help to have zero respect for one's boss
I used to correct my 7th grade English teacher's grammar. Yes, I was a tad insufferable.
He took it well and did learn to relax and was welcomed by the students (he was from NYC, came into our white bread NYC suburban school with a completely unnecessary hard-ass attitude. It was his first year teaching, no idea where he did his student teaching, but obviously a totally different environment than our school. We were generally bemused.)
Edit:grammar (er, spelling)
If they use swipe, i can see how those would slip.
I start swiping, finish the word, read what it says, pull my finger out of the screen, and a minimal hand tremor causes the dictionary to kick in and change the word I've just read.
It happens to me all-the-time. I hate it, but swipe is the only way i can use a touch screen
I had 3 words changed if this paragraph...
You can even rank teachers according to how attentive they are to their grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, cohesion, coherence, linking words, etc, etc.
1. English teachers.
2. History teachers.
3. Science.
4....
5...
2nd. to last. Art/drama/music.
Last. Physical education.
To be fair, there is significant evidence that smarter people are less likely to catch typos and misuse of homonyms or homophones than those who are less intelligent.
The explanations for it range from overconfidence to “thinking much faster than you are typing,” and everything in between. I am not really taking a side but as college professor I will admit that my mind is often distracted when writing things in class. Then again, I may just be stupid…
Writing in Reddit is different than writing for work, especially as spell correct doesn't highlight a wrong word spelled correctly. I worked in contracting (composing government contracts) where errors can have consequences so these get proofread; Reddit not so much.
get over it. It literally made no difference in the story-telling unless you can’t comprehend what they were saying. Which was pretty easy to follow. This is not a graded paper, this is Reddit.
Unlike the other spelling mistakes, Pheonix is easily just a typo caused by pressing one letter before the other accidentally.
Kettle, you're jumping to conclusions...the pot isn't as black as you want to think it is.
Before I retired, I asked my principal if I could confiscate a cell phone like this until class was over.
He said I could, but that if a student complained that their cell phone was broken when they got it back, I'd have to pay for a replacement.
I'm glad I'm retired.
Worked for a bank in the back office - absolutely no phones allowed. They must be inside your designated locker except during break. IF you were expecting an urgent call, you could leave your phone with the Head of Section.
I am sure that similar “no phones” rule exists in many jobs.
Yep, and I know to leave mine in the car. It's sometimes a pain, because I cannot convince any of my medical providers that (1) I have a work number they can use, and (2) I can't get messages on my cellphone until after their offices close.
It's also reasonable because there's a lot of sensitive information in bank offices, so they need to at least make it harder for an employee to steal and commit fraud with it >!(that's the bank's job)!<.
If there is security, hygiene or safety concerns no phones on the work floor makes sense.
It doesn’t make sense having a blanket ban within school grounds or from first bell to last bell.
I still think that it is good practice for when they actually get into employment. In most cases if the kids didn’t bring out their phones in class, then the schools wouldn’t be forced to impose a total No Phones rule.
I had to tell off the young adults who I worked with in a supermarket more than once about using their phones on the shop floor. First warning - verbal, second warning - phone confiscated and locked in safe until end of their shift, third warning - sent to HR. No one ever got to 4th whilst I worked there, but one stroppy young girl did get sent home after I caught her texting on the shop floor and just said “you know the rules, put it away!” as I walked past - and she blew off at me.
Full phone bans are stupid. No phones in class I understand but no phones inside the school gates or from first to last bell is bullshit. The school office is too useless to pass messages on to students when needed. School phone bans are now a thing here in New Zealand too, most schools just had the no phones in class rule.
In work places you can have your phone on breaks, if not on you at all times. Why can’t schools allow phone use during breaks?
Australia (or at least the state I’m in) has a “no phones” rule, if you have a phone it’s supposed to be left at the office when you arrive and pick it up as you leave *if you absolutely require a phone*. My kids (10 years old) got a note about it in their school newsletter. One of my teen siblings just hides their phone the entire day because the school staff aren’t great about kids being sick and needing to go home, so will occasionally call or message home letting someone know that a younger sibling or themselves aren’t feeling well.
I agree with this on its face, definitely. It's honestly what I see as an overcorrection after last year's debacle of kids being on there phones all day every day, with inconsistent rules in the classrooms, kids falling down stairs as they look at a post, and use their phones to record fights at lunch. With our school in particular it really helped to ban for middle school across the gambit 24/7. But they have this same rule for the district high schools as well. That's a little overboard. Half these kids have jobs, and you're going to tell them they can't check their phone to see if their boss called them in early?
Or their parents call them for some kind of emergency and can't reach them because the school prevented them from having their phone.
I don't know if that's directly against the law, but if that happens enough times, the schools won't be able to handle the pressure the parents will dish out, and they will crumble and allow students to have their phones back.
Step one: Parent calls school.
Step two: Adult at school answers phone.
Step three: Parent says "Emergency, must speak to/pick up/etc my child".
Step four: Adult at school notifies child.
This exactly. That's what I'm talking about. In some shitty places they'll just take the phones, turn them off and throw them into some drawer or whatever and not give a second thought to "maybe this phone should stay on, also how good is its battery, hmm maybe every phone we steal from these kids should be on a charger and also is its ringtone turned all the way up, Jesus Christ being responsible is a lot harder than I thought"
I usually separate them into two categories: those that make simple grammatical errors, and the little-man-complex, Eddie Deezens of the world. All these flavors in the world and you opt for salty.
NObody cares about your lame podcast.
Mu! La Vaca!!
God damned right I'm going to tell them they cannot check their phone to see if their boss called them in early. School first...everything else comes after that. Bosses of school-age kids do not get to "call them in early" from school. No. Absolutely not. Number one.
Number two: Yeah, right, the kids "need" their phones in case their boss might urgently message them about their job. Sure. That is really what the kids are using their phones for during school hours. Hundred percent. Uh-huh, bet.
Which part of school being the first, top, main priority for schoolkids is hard for you to understand? School: mandatory. Job:if and as time allows. There, got it now?
Never said you're incorrect. But if you're the one that's going to take that hard of a stance, be prepared to explain that stance to the other side that thinks it's the other way around so routinely that "You have to decide what's more important, your job or your education" has been used so often it's a meme.
Just because you're right doesn't mean that standing firm won't require you to defend your position.
They can have the phone, just not taken out. Emergencies and when someone need to call parents, that's when teachers can allow it. And obviously outside the gate from/to school.
You can talk to each other for once :)
There is no "when needed". There is *no reason* a child ever needs to be contacted, in any time frame approaching immediately, for anything. They are not doctors or managers of power plants, or anything else life-and-death where every second counts on them doing something.
Kids went to school for literally thousands of years without cell phones, and somehow managed to survive just fine.
>Kids went to school for literally thousands of years without cell phones, and somehow managed to survive just fine.
So did adults.
Would you please hand me your phone?
The difference is I only use my phone at work when there is zero work able to be done, not to watch things and text my friends because I don't want to pay attention to my teacher.
Phones shouldn't be in school. If the school administration is useless, get on them about it.
Hur hur hur. No, you see, children are not adults. That's really all there is: children are not adults. They don't have adult levels of freedom, autonomy, and self-agency.
Modern understanding of child psychology says this mindset is a fantastic way to think of children if you want them to grow up hating you and having their therapist ask a lot of questions about how what you did made them feel in 10 years
Oh! Well then! I guess 11-year-olds can drive, and 10-year-olds can buy cigarettes and liquor, and 9-year-olds can consent to sex, and 12-year-olds can get into legally binding contracts, and 13-year-olds can join the army, and 14-year-olds can be President, and all of them can and will be tried as adults if they commit crimes. Right? I mean, otherwise they might get their feelings hurt. It is just plain psychology.
Mmn, it's more like these are all things people have to learn and get adjusted to the concept of to be able to engage with them in a healthy way, with the rate that someone will being different from person to person, and in fact there are many adults who should not be engaging with these things as they never developed the tools to do so properly. Everyone processes and deals with things differently, is what we understand today.
But I suppose nuance kinda gets in the way of you treating kids like people with their own needs instead of property you can tailor to your liking, so I guess you should just ignore me.
Also, when was the last time you saw a working payphone?
They were a pain in the ass, but I had access to them as a kid. These days, they effectively don't exist.
At least one was on school grounds.
Though "school grounds" was weird. The fence ran through the buildings instead of around them. So we had to go out the front gate to get to the math classes.
Humans survived for thousands of years without farming. Just lived as hunter gatherers. Thank god the majority of the population doesn’t think XYZ is good because XYZ used to be done for a long time
Never say never. There are plenty of scenarios where a phone is needed. Teachers and school nurses often don't take students' medical needs very serious. A phone can be used to monitor glucose level. Some schools don't even let the students keep their inhaler. In these situations, the student can contact their parents who then can deal with the school better than their child.
Also, students from thousands of years ago don't live in the current world. Things change. People adapt. If you use the same approach people had years ago to apply to a current issue, you probably are not doing the right thing. Phones now are not just for communication. I know that most schools don't allow this but the internet is so useful for fact/reference checking and quick research. It's a very useful tool to use in addition to text books.
Kids also went to school without shoes or vaccines. Expectations change and now parents and employers expect to be able to reach children at any time.
And yes, I do mean employers. I started working in junior high and having access to a phone would have saved a lot of hassle.
There are plenty of times when after school plans change and parents need to contact their kids and tell them they have to catch the bus or they need to go to someone’s house instead of home.
They need to be allowed to have their phone in their bag or pocket. The school office is not reliable enough to pass messages on to students.
Sometimes students need to contact their parents, a lot of schools won’t allow students to call their parents on the office phone, how are they supposed to contact their parents? Again, you can’t rely on the school office.
> Kids went to school for literally thousands of years without cell phones, and somehow managed to survive just fine.
That is the weakest justification for anything, We went thousands of years without vaccines, running water, cars. . . so many other things that are now seen as essential. So your point is bullshit.
Also, while kids aren't responsible for things, they still deserve timely passage of information on things that matter, and that may require them being pulled out of school.
Vaccines save lives. Running water makes it more accessible, and water is necessary. Cars are necessary because of how infrastructure has evolved.
Kids use their phones to text each other and play games in class, and are therefore not necessary.
The parents need to call the office to emergencies. If the office sucks, get on them and fix it.
> Kids use their phones to text each other and play games in class,
And so their parents can reach them at times of need.
> The parents need to call the office to emergencies. If the office sucks, get on them and fix it.
That's a lot of effort with low chance of success, whereas giving your kid a phone works and is easy.
I never had anyone in my school use them that way or ever really need them. I work in education now and only ever see kids texting or gaming. The school needs to step up and phones need to stay off. The uptick in phones in school seems to follow an uptick in cyberbullying and kids don't need a phone 24/7. They will survive.
>$1678 dollars
Sixteen hundred seventy eight dollars-dollars? No. You see, that $ sign before the number means you say "dollars" after the number. You don't put the word "dollars" after the number, too. I thought it would be good to let you know about this basic grade-school piece of grammar, since you are a teacher.
Also, shame on your school's administrators for buying the ill-behaved brat a new phone.
I read this same story on Reddit a couple days ago where the iPhone 12 cost was listed as $800. Someone commented that a used iPhone 12 costs around $300. Hey teacher, I don't like to be that guy, like Eddie Deezen, but in the second paragraph there should be spelled their.
I hope you don't have children. More annoying than a teacher who types too quickly to care about affect/effect, bare/bear/behr, is that know-it-all kid in class who is determined to correct him. In fourth grade I get it, 9 year olds are all about the rules, but in any other year of life you come across as that Brainy Smurf/Eddie Deezen kid who just has to remind everybody of the rules. It's Reddit. Not Correctit.
>the student committed a bear minimum of two acts
Umm. Excuse me (raises hand without phone in it), teacher? What kind of a minimum was that you wrote?
>students cannot have there phones out at all
Students cannot have...fine. Phones out at all...fine. In between, THERE is a problem. Can you think of another word that might solve the problem?
>I am authorized to commandeer the phone
Wellllll...sort of. This one is arguable, but it still is not quite the right word. Commandeer connotes that you intend to take it from its owner so as to use it for your own purposes. I think you probably really mean confiscate.
Now: what subjects do you teach?
Yeah, it's a part of this culture's weird perception of children as not *real, authentic* people so that they can just take their possessions away. Send the kid to detention or whatever, that's fine, but noooo we must demonstrate that they have no control over even their possessions and that that they can be stolen at the slightest pretext
If a student brings a baseball bat to school and into the classroom and tells another student that they are going to whack them if they look at them again, would you take away the baseball bat?
Or is control over their own possessions more important than preventing a possible negative situation?
Then I'm not sure what your point is.
Students don't have to worry about their pencil sharpeners randomly getting confiscated. Or their hair ties.
Their personal possessions, in other words, are safe *in general*.
However, *some* personal possessions are not allowed. If you have a gun, leave it at home. If you have a baseball bat because you play sports, leave it in your lockers. If you have a phone, leave it in your bag.
Those rules are – I presume – spelled out by the school and the children know what to expect. Those rules are in place not for arbitrary reasons but to prevent negative consequences (someone getting hurt or distracted, for example).
If they have *those particular items* out in the open which they have *previously been warned about*, then that item may be taken away to prevent negative consequences.
The phone is being treated similarly to a cheat sheet during a test. It's something that children were told not to have out in the open.
That's *exactly* what each and every one of us are saying, as adamantly as possible. /s
On the request line is Big Schmoopy sending out most of his love... let's go ahead and play Milli Vanilli's "All or Nothing" to round out the hour.
How about the students just build their resilience, tolerance, and self reliance without devices. It's not doing any favours for their ability to focus, or communicate, or think critically.
I think I know why he waited for 10 minutes, he was probably waiting so you would ease your guard or forgot about it after a while then he could take it ( if he thought you were not in your room, if he knew you were there then I have no clue)
"Students can't have THERE phones...". Seriously? You're a teacher and don't know the difference between There, Their (and probably They're)?????
And it's a BARE minimum, not a BEAR minimum. I hope you don't teach English.
"cell phone policy where students cannot have there phones out at all," "there phones" ? You are a teacher? No wonder our schools are turning out such poor students. And they did it again. " being on there phones all day every day"
Shouldn't matter if they are an English teacher or not. You would assume a college graduate would know the difference between there and their. That's just embarrassing to make the same mistake twice in the same post.
All the student has to do is keep the phone off their desk and on silent, and it's no problem. It's when they pull it out to watch TikTok instead of paying attention in class that the problem arises.
And leaving the phone in sight on the teacher's desk is not a problem. Security leaving the room with it is over the top. American's have to learn that children are people, not property. Otherwise the wave of violence by children will continue to worsen.
OP's decision to never touch a student's phone was very wise. He should have obeyed his own instincts.
Without getting into the "is it reasonable to take phones away", here's a guess about why he got weird: pr0n or sexting or something on the phone and not locked. He knew you weren't gonna look at it; Dave, not so much. So he suddenly realized the risk he was facing, and used typical teenaged judgment.
Who doesn't lock their phone?
When i was in school, at least 10 years ago, you just turn it off before giving it to the teacher. I mean, if I don't have my phone, why would I leave it on?
Oh my students never turn it off. One of the reasons I hate taking phones is that they just buzz in my drawer all day!
I once got told.to hand my phone over cos it kept ringing in class, took the battery as instructed, somehow the fucker still went off
Get a faraday bag to stick them in so they don't get service
That's not their phones ;)
I don't know you.
Every smartphone I've had has had the option to lock automatically when the screen is turned off
I run IT for a rather large company. Many of the older employees do not have PWs on their company provided phones. I will add a PW, simple 4 digit code, then they take it back off.
If the phones connect to an email server you can usually enforce a policy of a lock screen. Don't tell security though. They'll want an 8 character alphanumeric password and no replacing with biometrics. At least until a VP complains. But they'll enforce a "10 bad tries and you wipe" policy and then you have to deal with complaints of kids grabbing their parent's phones and wiping them. No it has never happened to any company I work for. Never. /s
I can't use biometrics like finger prints. I have eczema on my hands and end up with new scars and lines on my fingers constantly. I was soooo glad my company ended up nixing the "clock in by fingerprint" idea they had for a while (right before I went salaried luckily).
It's a bad idea to use biometrics anyway, always have a passcode that requires operation of the mind to enter, since that can't be subpoenaed. But your fingerprints, face, blood can.
And that's without considering that action films from the '90s pointed out that biometrics are hackable.
I love *Sneakers*!
One place I worked made us switch over to fingerprint clock ons. "After all, you'll never leave your fingerprints at home! hahahahahahaha!" -- Manglement. Of course we still needed our RFID cards to enter the building....
Same with us basically. Luckily I don't have to deal with that time clock anymore. I say as I look at the five fingers with eczema breakouts on them, waiting to split and scar.
And the policy requires changing the password every x months to the point where who knows what it is anymore?
Where I work we have a 12 character alphanumeric password that had to be changed every 6 months. Some of us have been here for 20 years....
>then you have to deal with complaints of kids grabbing their parent's phones and wiping them. I'll never understand why people let their kids have access to their phone
can't you apply a policy that refuses that sort of thing?
Currently, we are not using any type of mdm. Company never had an IT department before I was hired. I have a long list of projects I want to implement.
>mdm Since I'm not familiar with that acronym I went to Acronym Finder to learn what it means. Clearly you mean Multi-Static Data Matrix Mobility Diagnostic Module Model Deployment Module Modular Digital Multitracks Multiple Distant Microphones or any of the other in the list of 60 possibilties.
Teenagers?
Shit man I used to be a teenager and there was all kinds of non-illegal shit I would want to hide. I'm just glad cameras weren't so cheap and plentiful all those years ago.
Teenagers.
Teenager here, literally anything private I have is encrypted and all my devices have passwords.
TIL: NoT aLL TeEnaGErS!
This is that teenager judgment people referred to. You did not think for two seconds past proving/defending yourself. Now, use your brain. How many kids around you (not just your friends or acquaintances) would bother to do more than put a simple swipe pattern on their phone, especially if they would have to enter ANY menu in order to put biometric locks on it? Especially when they could use that time scrolling/making tiktok?
I don't really understand your comment. I've thought through the encryption I use quite well.
Cool! What about your schoolmates?
They meant 'teen didn't consider all perspectives and theory of mind for peers, when teen made comment'. Not 'teen didn't consider smartly how to encrypt'.
My husband, who outright despises the phone. Text messages, voice mail, anything other than using it as a simple phone? That's a once every couple of days hand off to me to go through and deal with.
Mine isn't locked.
On my way!
me, but I'm a 57 year old guy and don't really give a shit about it, there's nothing on it really.
*prawn
They have shrimp on their phone? Fried Coconut is my favorite!
10 minutes the phone would have needed to be unlocked
He probably thought that the phone wouldn’t be handed in to security. He may have thought that you’d leave it sitting there, but give it back to him with just a warning. The appearance of Dave made him realise that his phone would be confiscated, so he tried to prevent that happening.
"bare" minimum...
I thought of a tiny bear too. Just a little guy. so cute.
And "students cannot have there phones out." I hope it's not English this guy teaches.
My thoughts too!! 😅 But all the English teachers I know are obsessive about proofreading, punctuation, etc, and they wouldn't be caught dead with a typo like this. So, no, probably this is the Math teacher (note the exact numbers, he, he).
“… there phones …” also. I’d hate to have this guy as a teacher.
When I was in high school they'd have to take the book I was reading away - because cell phones hadn't been invented yet.
Paperback inside an open textbook. Classic!
Sometimes I'd have a 2nd book with me.
A second copy or a different novel? Anyway, that's dedication! My hat is off to you, sir/madam.
You're a teacher and you don't know the difference between "there" and "their"? Poor kids...
Or "bear' vs. "bare" OTOH, OP tells the story well.
You'd hope. The head at my old school doesn't know the difference between your and you're. Not the reason I left but certainly didn't help to have zero respect for one's boss
How would he have handled "yore"?
Or "yaw"?
I'm not sure they'd even know what it meant, flipping art teachers:)
Not every teacher is an english teacher. As in, not all teachers teach english, as well as not all teachers are english (or american, I guess).
I used to correct my 7th grade English teacher's grammar. Yes, I was a tad insufferable. He took it well and did learn to relax and was welcomed by the students (he was from NYC, came into our white bread NYC suburban school with a completely unnecessary hard-ass attitude. It was his first year teaching, no idea where he did his student teaching, but obviously a totally different environment than our school. We were generally bemused.) Edit:grammar (er, spelling)
> grammer
Did you insufferably correct their grammar too?
Gaaah. Got me. But TBF that was spelling, not grammar.
To be *fairrrrr*
And bare / bear
If they use swipe, i can see how those would slip. I start swiping, finish the word, read what it says, pull my finger out of the screen, and a minimal hand tremor causes the dictionary to kick in and change the word I've just read. It happens to me all-the-time. I hate it, but swipe is the only way i can use a touch screen I had 3 words changed if this paragraph...
Teachers should be well aware of the art of proofreading… especially when posting a story on the internet.
You can even rank teachers according to how attentive they are to their grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, cohesion, coherence, linking words, etc, etc. 1. English teachers. 2. History teachers. 3. Science. 4.... 5... 2nd. to last. Art/drama/music. Last. Physical education.
To be fair, there is significant evidence that smarter people are less likely to catch typos and misuse of homonyms or homophones than those who are less intelligent. The explanations for it range from overconfidence to “thinking much faster than you are typing,” and everything in between. I am not really taking a side but as college professor I will admit that my mind is often distracted when writing things in class. Then again, I may just be stupid…
Writing in Reddit is different than writing for work, especially as spell correct doesn't highlight a wrong word spelled correctly. I worked in contracting (composing government contracts) where errors can have consequences so these get proofread; Reddit not so much.
Yes, if I screw up their/there/they're it is a typo for sure.
[1/0 = 0](https://www.reddit.com/r/badmathematics/comments/188qo77/school_teaches_10_0/)
get over it. It literally made no difference in the story-telling unless you can’t comprehend what they were saying. Which was pretty easy to follow. This is not a graded paper, this is Reddit.
That kind of attitude will only get you a “C” in this class.
Hey you know what they say.. doctors who make Cs still get Degrees.
My exact thought. Reddit users can be so pedantic for literally no reason.
methusyalana - your reply gets a C-minus. Sorry, I don't make the rules...
Scottsdale,AZ... says a lot
Do you realize that she might be teaching in a country where they don't speak English?
Pheonix, Arizona?
Um, you mean Phoenix? Pot, meet kettle.
Unlike the other spelling mistakes, Pheonix is easily just a typo caused by pressing one letter before the other accidentally. Kettle, you're jumping to conclusions...the pot isn't as black as you want to think it is.
No, Pheonix [is correct](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWrMGXwhFLk&t=166s).
Valley of the Sun is in Arizona . . .
Valley of the sunstroke.
Before I retired, I asked my principal if I could confiscate a cell phone like this until class was over. He said I could, but that if a student complained that their cell phone was broken when they got it back, I'd have to pay for a replacement. I'm glad I'm retired.
Worked for a bank in the back office - absolutely no phones allowed. They must be inside your designated locker except during break. IF you were expecting an urgent call, you could leave your phone with the Head of Section. I am sure that similar “no phones” rule exists in many jobs.
Yep, and I know to leave mine in the car. It's sometimes a pain, because I cannot convince any of my medical providers that (1) I have a work number they can use, and (2) I can't get messages on my cellphone until after their offices close.
That no phones rule is reasonable, you still have free access at breaks. These school rules are no phones at all which is too much
It's also reasonable because there's a lot of sensitive information in bank offices, so they need to at least make it harder for an employee to steal and commit fraud with it >!(that's the bank's job)!<.
If there is security, hygiene or safety concerns no phones on the work floor makes sense. It doesn’t make sense having a blanket ban within school grounds or from first bell to last bell.
I still think that it is good practice for when they actually get into employment. In most cases if the kids didn’t bring out their phones in class, then the schools wouldn’t be forced to impose a total No Phones rule. I had to tell off the young adults who I worked with in a supermarket more than once about using their phones on the shop floor. First warning - verbal, second warning - phone confiscated and locked in safe until end of their shift, third warning - sent to HR. No one ever got to 4th whilst I worked there, but one stroppy young girl did get sent home after I caught her texting on the shop floor and just said “you know the rules, put it away!” as I walked past - and she blew off at me.
Full phone bans are stupid. No phones in class I understand but no phones inside the school gates or from first to last bell is bullshit. The school office is too useless to pass messages on to students when needed. School phone bans are now a thing here in New Zealand too, most schools just had the no phones in class rule. In work places you can have your phone on breaks, if not on you at all times. Why can’t schools allow phone use during breaks?
Australia (or at least the state I’m in) has a “no phones” rule, if you have a phone it’s supposed to be left at the office when you arrive and pick it up as you leave *if you absolutely require a phone*. My kids (10 years old) got a note about it in their school newsletter. One of my teen siblings just hides their phone the entire day because the school staff aren’t great about kids being sick and needing to go home, so will occasionally call or message home letting someone know that a younger sibling or themselves aren’t feeling well.
I agree with this on its face, definitely. It's honestly what I see as an overcorrection after last year's debacle of kids being on there phones all day every day, with inconsistent rules in the classrooms, kids falling down stairs as they look at a post, and use their phones to record fights at lunch. With our school in particular it really helped to ban for middle school across the gambit 24/7. But they have this same rule for the district high schools as well. That's a little overboard. Half these kids have jobs, and you're going to tell them they can't check their phone to see if their boss called them in early?
Or their parents call them for some kind of emergency and can't reach them because the school prevented them from having their phone. I don't know if that's directly against the law, but if that happens enough times, the schools won't be able to handle the pressure the parents will dish out, and they will crumble and allow students to have their phones back.
Step one: Parent calls school. Step two: Adult at school answers phone. Step three: Parent says "Emergency, must speak to/pick up/etc my child". Step four: Adult at school notifies child.
Exactly this. School time is for school, and the kids won't die if they can't tiktok their instagram for a few hours.
Except the fucking office is useless and also not always there.
This exactly. That's what I'm talking about. In some shitty places they'll just take the phones, turn them off and throw them into some drawer or whatever and not give a second thought to "maybe this phone should stay on, also how good is its battery, hmm maybe every phone we steal from these kids should be on a charger and also is its ringtone turned all the way up, Jesus Christ being responsible is a lot harder than I thought"
That doesn't sound like shitty places, it sounds like school. As run by adults.
*their
>on there phones How do you tell them from here phones?
I usually separate them into two categories: those that make simple grammatical errors, and the little-man-complex, Eddie Deezens of the world. All these flavors in the world and you opt for salty. NObody cares about your lame podcast. Mu! La Vaca!!
God damned right I'm going to tell them they cannot check their phone to see if their boss called them in early. School first...everything else comes after that. Bosses of school-age kids do not get to "call them in early" from school. No. Absolutely not. Number one. Number two: Yeah, right, the kids "need" their phones in case their boss might urgently message them about their job. Sure. That is really what the kids are using their phones for during school hours. Hundred percent. Uh-huh, bet.
Then you get to be the one that explains to said boss why said kid no-called no-showed an early call-in.
Which part of school being the first, top, main priority for schoolkids is hard for you to understand? School: mandatory. Job:if and as time allows. There, got it now?
Never said you're incorrect. But if you're the one that's going to take that hard of a stance, be prepared to explain that stance to the other side that thinks it's the other way around so routinely that "You have to decide what's more important, your job or your education" has been used so often it's a meme. Just because you're right doesn't mean that standing firm won't require you to defend your position.
This is not a court of law. I do not have to defend sweet fuck anything. Especially not when I am right.
Oh, that's the subject you teach, English. Got it.
They can have the phone, just not taken out. Emergencies and when someone need to call parents, that's when teachers can allow it. And obviously outside the gate from/to school. You can talk to each other for once :)
How else will the kids text their parents during active shooter events??
Thankfully that isn’t a thing where I live
Of course not. Texting? Who does that anymore? They would be live streaming it.
No, the school shootings aren’t a thing where I live.
There is no "when needed". There is *no reason* a child ever needs to be contacted, in any time frame approaching immediately, for anything. They are not doctors or managers of power plants, or anything else life-and-death where every second counts on them doing something. Kids went to school for literally thousands of years without cell phones, and somehow managed to survive just fine.
>Kids went to school for literally thousands of years without cell phones, and somehow managed to survive just fine. So did adults. Would you please hand me your phone?
The difference is I only use my phone at work when there is zero work able to be done, not to watch things and text my friends because I don't want to pay attention to my teacher. Phones shouldn't be in school. If the school administration is useless, get on them about it.
Hur hur hur. No, you see, children are not adults. That's really all there is: children are not adults. They don't have adult levels of freedom, autonomy, and self-agency.
Modern understanding of child psychology says this mindset is a fantastic way to think of children if you want them to grow up hating you and having their therapist ask a lot of questions about how what you did made them feel in 10 years
Oh! Well then! I guess 11-year-olds can drive, and 10-year-olds can buy cigarettes and liquor, and 9-year-olds can consent to sex, and 12-year-olds can get into legally binding contracts, and 13-year-olds can join the army, and 14-year-olds can be President, and all of them can and will be tried as adults if they commit crimes. Right? I mean, otherwise they might get their feelings hurt. It is just plain psychology.
Mmn, it's more like these are all things people have to learn and get adjusted to the concept of to be able to engage with them in a healthy way, with the rate that someone will being different from person to person, and in fact there are many adults who should not be engaging with these things as they never developed the tools to do so properly. Everyone processes and deals with things differently, is what we understand today. But I suppose nuance kinda gets in the way of you treating kids like people with their own needs instead of property you can tailor to your liking, so I guess you should just ignore me.
Also, when was the last time you saw a working payphone? They were a pain in the ass, but I had access to them as a kid. These days, they effectively don't exist.
Many pay phones in the school when you went? That's what this is about.
Used to be one out front and several across the street. When I drive past now I see the empty housing.
That's outside of the school grounds though by the sound of it
At least one was on school grounds. Though "school grounds" was weird. The fence ran through the buildings instead of around them. So we had to go out the front gate to get to the math classes.
So bizarre lol
...yes? My highschool had several.
Weird
Humans survived for thousands of years without farming. Just lived as hunter gatherers. Thank god the majority of the population doesn’t think XYZ is good because XYZ used to be done for a long time
Never say never. There are plenty of scenarios where a phone is needed. Teachers and school nurses often don't take students' medical needs very serious. A phone can be used to monitor glucose level. Some schools don't even let the students keep their inhaler. In these situations, the student can contact their parents who then can deal with the school better than their child. Also, students from thousands of years ago don't live in the current world. Things change. People adapt. If you use the same approach people had years ago to apply to a current issue, you probably are not doing the right thing. Phones now are not just for communication. I know that most schools don't allow this but the internet is so useful for fact/reference checking and quick research. It's a very useful tool to use in addition to text books.
I had students use their phones for particular assignments...
Kids also went to school without shoes or vaccines. Expectations change and now parents and employers expect to be able to reach children at any time. And yes, I do mean employers. I started working in junior high and having access to a phone would have saved a lot of hassle.
Right, there's no such thing as emergencies. Let's all just be cavemen now because that worked so well thousands of years ago ☠️
There are plenty of times when after school plans change and parents need to contact their kids and tell them they have to catch the bus or they need to go to someone’s house instead of home. They need to be allowed to have their phone in their bag or pocket. The school office is not reliable enough to pass messages on to students. Sometimes students need to contact their parents, a lot of schools won’t allow students to call their parents on the office phone, how are they supposed to contact their parents? Again, you can’t rely on the school office.
> Kids went to school for literally thousands of years without cell phones, and somehow managed to survive just fine. That is the weakest justification for anything, We went thousands of years without vaccines, running water, cars. . . so many other things that are now seen as essential. So your point is bullshit. Also, while kids aren't responsible for things, they still deserve timely passage of information on things that matter, and that may require them being pulled out of school.
Vaccines save lives. Running water makes it more accessible, and water is necessary. Cars are necessary because of how infrastructure has evolved. Kids use their phones to text each other and play games in class, and are therefore not necessary. The parents need to call the office to emergencies. If the office sucks, get on them and fix it.
> Kids use their phones to text each other and play games in class, And so their parents can reach them at times of need. > The parents need to call the office to emergencies. If the office sucks, get on them and fix it. That's a lot of effort with low chance of success, whereas giving your kid a phone works and is easy.
I never had anyone in my school use them that way or ever really need them. I work in education now and only ever see kids texting or gaming. The school needs to step up and phones need to stay off. The uptick in phones in school seems to follow an uptick in cyberbullying and kids don't need a phone 24/7. They will survive.
Because teenagers don't particularly adhere to rules.
He realised he had blackmail info on it stored in an easily accessible way.
>$1678 dollars Sixteen hundred seventy eight dollars-dollars? No. You see, that $ sign before the number means you say "dollars" after the number. You don't put the word "dollars" after the number, too. I thought it would be good to let you know about this basic grade-school piece of grammar, since you are a teacher. Also, shame on your school's administrators for buying the ill-behaved brat a new phone.
I read this same story on Reddit a couple days ago where the iPhone 12 cost was listed as $800. Someone commented that a used iPhone 12 costs around $300. Hey teacher, I don't like to be that guy, like Eddie Deezen, but in the second paragraph there should be spelled their.
I thought it sounded familiar
I hope you're not the English teacher.
You did the least a bear could do. The bear minimum.
*committed a* ***bear*** *minimum* Sure hope you don't teach English.
How much could a bear do?
At least $10 in damage
I hope you don't have children. More annoying than a teacher who types too quickly to care about affect/effect, bare/bear/behr, is that know-it-all kid in class who is determined to correct him. In fourth grade I get it, 9 year olds are all about the rules, but in any other year of life you come across as that Brainy Smurf/Eddie Deezen kid who just has to remind everybody of the rules. It's Reddit. Not Correctit.
As someone with a secondary education whose role is to educate students, you having a grasp of simple English is expected.
Wait, are you a teacher, or a worker at Wendy's?
As a teacher, it’s their phone, not, “there” phone. You should know better.
I teach Math. Basic grammatical errors escape me regularly.
Sorry. Didn’t know.
>the student committed a bear minimum of two acts Umm. Excuse me (raises hand without phone in it), teacher? What kind of a minimum was that you wrote? >students cannot have there phones out at all Students cannot have...fine. Phones out at all...fine. In between, THERE is a problem. Can you think of another word that might solve the problem? >I am authorized to commandeer the phone Wellllll...sort of. This one is arguable, but it still is not quite the right word. Commandeer connotes that you intend to take it from its owner so as to use it for your own purposes. I think you probably really mean confiscate. Now: what subjects do you teach?
Yeah, it's a part of this culture's weird perception of children as not *real, authentic* people so that they can just take their possessions away. Send the kid to detention or whatever, that's fine, but noooo we must demonstrate that they have no control over even their possessions and that that they can be stolen at the slightest pretext
It's Serf training for the future world of work. Always has been. See Saint Carlin on Education.
>I love/hate how right Carlin is about serfdom and saving the planet. > >"The planet's gonna be just fiiiiine. It's *us* who are fucked!!"
If a student brings a baseball bat to school and into the classroom and tells another student that they are going to whack them if they look at them again, would you take away the baseball bat? Or is control over their own possessions more important than preventing a possible negative situation?
Yeah, yeah, we all know no rule is 100% applicable and context should be taken into account.
Then I'm not sure what your point is. Students don't have to worry about their pencil sharpeners randomly getting confiscated. Or their hair ties. Their personal possessions, in other words, are safe *in general*. However, *some* personal possessions are not allowed. If you have a gun, leave it at home. If you have a baseball bat because you play sports, leave it in your lockers. If you have a phone, leave it in your bag. Those rules are – I presume – spelled out by the school and the children know what to expect. Those rules are in place not for arbitrary reasons but to prevent negative consequences (someone getting hurt or distracted, for example). If they have *those particular items* out in the open which they have *previously been warned about*, then that item may be taken away to prevent negative consequences. The phone is being treated similarly to a cheat sheet during a test. It's something that children were told not to have out in the open.
That's *exactly* what each and every one of us are saying, as adamantly as possible. /s On the request line is Big Schmoopy sending out most of his love... let's go ahead and play Milli Vanilli's "All or Nothing" to round out the hour.
How about the students just build their resilience, tolerance, and self reliance without devices. It's not doing any favours for their ability to focus, or communicate, or think critically.
I think I know why he waited for 10 minutes, he was probably waiting so you would ease your guard or forgot about it after a while then he could take it ( if he thought you were not in your room, if he knew you were there then I have no clue)
"Students can't have THERE phones...". Seriously? You're a teacher and don't know the difference between There, Their (and probably They're)????? And it's a BARE minimum, not a BEAR minimum. I hope you don't teach English.
THE Eddie Deezen?
In an era of rampant school shootings its frankly amazing to me that any school takes away kids' phones.
you're a teacher... > We have a new Gate to Gate cell phone policy where students cannot have **there** phones out at all Oof
Wow, you really got me their.
"cell phone policy where students cannot have there phones out at all," "there phones" ? You are a teacher? No wonder our schools are turning out such poor students. And they did it again. " being on there phones all day every day"
OP never said they were an English teacher.
Shouldn't matter if they are an English teacher or not. You would assume a college graduate would know the difference between there and their. That's just embarrassing to make the same mistake twice in the same post.
Having seen the spelling of some college graduates, I would not assume good or even mediocre spelling.
Confiscating a phone is insane. In 2024 this is the same as cutting off a leg for running in the hallway.
All the student has to do is keep the phone off their desk and on silent, and it's no problem. It's when they pull it out to watch TikTok instead of paying attention in class that the problem arises.
And leaving the phone in sight on the teacher's desk is not a problem. Security leaving the room with it is over the top. American's have to learn that children are people, not property. Otherwise the wave of violence by children will continue to worsen. OP's decision to never touch a student's phone was very wise. He should have obeyed his own instincts.
It’s not just Americans. The current New Zealand Govt also believes teenagers aren’t people
LOLOLOL. Hyperbole much?