Knee-jerk bans do nothing to solve underlying issues

AUSTRALIA’S schools ban phones, Australian Football League bans booing and cheering too loud and Parliament bans lies.

All good ideas, well-intentioned but unrealistic. Parliament will never ban lies as the silence would be truly deafening. The AFL’s Behavioural Awareness Officers were dropped after one game.

Banning phones won’t solve anything as they are simply a tool to bully, a way to gain a few ‘likes’ or to order their Uber meals. There is a need to examine what the phones are used for in schools and in general. Are they just a metaphor for the problems of modern life, boredom, narcissism and a lack of true connection?

I’m sure that most phone apps, Facebook, Instagram and whatever other new ones that I also don’t use, will be available on their educational iPad or laptops.

Of course schools can lock certain applications, until the students work out how to unlock them – probably by the time the teacher has finished marking the roll.

If a student is on their phone during a class it is probably the teacher’s fault as they haven’t engaged the students fully or so the educational experts will say.

Students do use their phones for educational purposes. As a teacher I had a student send a message to their parent who rang the school and contacted a coordinator, who then sent me an email to discuss the student’s concern and that was all before the end of the 50-minute lesson.

There will probably be an unexpected outcome from this ban, many more ill students, as students with medical issues will be able to keep their phone. There are very few examples that come to mind where a phone is instantly needed for medical matters.

A knee-jerk reaction to the symptoms of problems will do little to solve the underlying problem. Keep trying!

By the way, Parliament hasn’t tried to ban lies, they know the limit of their powers.