This week, the Washington Post featured several articles/commentaries on cell phone use in schools. (See article here, John Kelly’s blog here, and today’s editorial here).

At issue is the proposal by Quratul-Ann Malik, elected student member of the Montgomery County school board, to allow high school students to use cell phones during their lunch period. Currently, most public schools in the D.C. area forbid students to use cell phones anywhere on campus during school hours.

The cell phone ban is apparently frustrating to students who continue to sneak cell phones into the classroom and text each other during class, as well as to teachers who waste valuable class time acting as cell phone police. The cell phone use at lunch idea is meant to appease both sides: students can still stay in touch during the day with friends and family, and teachers don’t have to worry about cell phones being a distraction in the classroom since students will respectfully save their texting for lunch. In theory.

In practice, my prediction is that students who have perfected the art of sneaky-texting in class will continue to sneaky-text until they get their cell phones confiscated, and those who formerly obeyed the ban will now be encouraged to turn their cell phones on during lunch, and might even be tempted to keep them on for the remainder of the day.

At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly and old-fashioned, I don’t see why students need to use cell phones during the school day at all. Why tempt them to start sliding down a slippery slope? I know that many students have long days with after-school activities, sports team practices, theater rehearsals, and part time jobs. I know because I was a high school student not too long ago, had the same hectic schedule, and yet managed to do just fine without a cell phone. And if I did need to call home and tell my mom about a change in plans, I called her after school from a nearby pay phone, not during.

One could argue that if high schools students, especially seniors, are old enough to drive, why shouldn’t they be old enough to have the freedom to use cell phones in school—especially at lunch? Many will be heading off to college in a matter of months where they will be expected to live independently and responsibly—why impose so many restrictions on their freedom in high school?

Maybe it’s just me, but I noticed that something magical happens in the transition between high school and college. Maybe it’s the change in environment, the fact that college is a choice while high school is mandatory, or just the transition from being the oldest and most experienced kids in high school to the youngest freshmen just learning the ropes in college, but the same shenanigans that kids wouldn’t think twice about doing in front of teachers in high school disappear several months later in college classrooms with professors at the helm. Students seem to age years over the summer between high school and college—at least as far as classroom behavior goes. So I’m all for limiting unnecessary gadgets and distractions on high school grounds during the school day, even in the lunchroom. If the school allows students to leave campus during lunch, they can use their phones as much as they want off school grounds. If not, they should save texting for after school or risk having their cell phones confiscated.

On a side note, I’m reminded of a post I wrote back in February about a conference in Washington called Mobile Learning 09 where wireless phone companies attempted to sell the idea that incorporating cell phones into the classroom will improve student performance. (In case you’re wondering, I wasn’t exactly in favor of the idea.)

(Photo: Mike “Dakinewavamon” Kline’s flickr photostream/Creative Commons)