Modern life is impossible without communication. Technological progress has done everything possible in order to make people closer and to help them to reach each other from different parts of the world. Now we can forget about those days when we could easily enjoy our lowliness and being not reachable. Everything has changed. Wherever you and whatever you are doing your parents can always get you. Even if you pretend not to hear a call from them, you will be always forced to call them back as soon as you see the missed call. When talk about family relationships, we should still admit this small device always helps you in different situations. But is it ok that even pupils are now using cell phones? Do they really need them? And the most debatable question is should they use them at school?
Modern pupils have greatly changed. They have an access to everything we could not imagine at their age. And we should say they really have a good understanding of it. All these modern devices have become their best friends. And as so, they past as much time with them as possible. Naturally there came time when they started using them at schools and parents were glad to allow them to do it. Children became hostages of these small things and now they cannot leave home without them.
There were definitely a lot of debates devoted to the question of using cell phones at school. The main reason why this problem cannot be solved so easy is that there are two sides of it. I totally agree that there are a lot of disadvantages of it as well as advantages. Let us start from the positive side.
Pupils, mainly children, have such a peculiarity to get into troubles from time to time. My point of view is that this is the main reason why parents would like their children to cell phones everywhere. According to Maya Cohen, there are 3 main advantages:
You can be in touch with your children everywhere;
In any case of emergency children are always able to contact their parents and inform about it;
You can always inform your children about the change of your plans or give information about any other important news (Cohen, 2011).
Children are definitely our reassures and we need to protect them any time, even at school. Some people remind that pupils can switch off the voice during the lessons so that they could not disturb the teacher.
More than that now cell phones are more than just a phone. Pupils can use it for example for different creative lessons. They can show pictures to their speeches or use a piece of song to make their presentations more interesting. Using Internet can be useful as well.
According to Robert Kennedy, most private schools have allowed to use cell phones at schools. The administrations of these institutions have admitted that parents should always know everything about their children. However everything is not as simple as it may seem. These schools have worked out some policies on using it. So on one hand, they pay attention to parents` concern but at the same time on another - they do not break school rules (Kennedy, 2012)
Now we can talk about the negative side of this problem. Cell phone is still the main source of pupil`s distraction. There is always a temptation to play an interesting game instead of listening to the teacher`s lecture. So children are just wasting their time at school playing and not learning anything knew. Also they can easily forget to turn off their phones during their classes and this disturbs the whole class from the process of studying (Tonder, 2011).
My personal opinion is that in most cases pupils desire to have a cell phone in order to show up. This device can become an object of luxury. There are different types of the phones and naturally price is different. Children are like monkeys, they always what to imitate someone. And the situation with cell phones can be a good proof of it.
Scientists have been always saying that mobile phone can harmfully affect our health. It can cause some problems with brain and leads to the loss of concentration and headaches. That is why it is very important to limit children in using it. Of course it is difficult to control how much time your child spends talking or playing on the phone, but my point is that parents should explain all this from the very first use of the phone.
The problem of using cell phones at school has weighty arguments for each of the sides. Each parent should decide what is more important – knowledge and health or cell phones at schools. The answer depends on the personality as these points are always connected. Of course the best way is to allow pupils using phones but in the way that it will not contradict school policies. Anyway parents` attitude should be always taken into consideration.
Reference List
1. Cohen, M. (2011). Cell Phones at School: Should They Be Allowed?
Retrieved from: : http://life.familyeducation.com/cellular-telephones/school/51264.html#ixzz20XN9typd
2. Kennedy, R. (2012). Using Cell Phones At Schools. Retrieved from: http://privateschool.about.com/od/yourschool/qt/cellphones.htm
3. Tonder, W. (2011). Should children be allowed to have cell phones at schools. Retrieved from: http://www.parentscorner.org.za/blog/should-children-be-allowed-have-cellphones-school
