Celebrating classroom cellphone ban

Re Province clamps down on cellphones in school, March 13 Cellphones are powerful devices that should be kept out of the hands of anyone who has not reached the age of majority. In the classroom, cellphones are a major distraction for students and teachers, cutting into attention to the academics being taught as well as related homework.

Plagiarism is a major silent problem in secondary schools. Combine this with most students working jobs every day and a host of other out-ofschool activities and there is little time left to learn the complex academic curriculum required.

Ironically, these same students and their parents expect top marks to get into their favoured university when it comes time to graduate from high school.

Students are learning less and less each year. Once they get to university, students don’t know what they don’t know and many are lost. I speak from experience as an elementary school principal and that of my wife who was a secondary school teacher.

Finally, the Ford government has made a sensible decision: cellphones are banned. Education has become inundated with political correctness to the point where no one is willing to incur the wrath of our tweens or their parents.

Safety is only an excuse to get your children a cellphone. Younger parents are addicted to their own devices and, in an era of democratized parenting, are subject to huge pressure from children to have what their parents have. Children learn early that if they whine and ask enough, most parents will give in to their children’s constant demands.

What is also forgotten are the students whose parents for whatever reason cannot give them a cellphone. This can become a situation of social exclusion. Robert Bahlieda, Newmarket

John Boynton PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER DIRECTORS: John A. Honderich Chair Campbell R. Harvey Martin E. Thall Elaine B. Berger Daniel A. Jauernig Alnasir Samji Paul Weiss Linda Hughes Dorothy Strachan Daryl Aitken John Boynton Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Torstar Corp.