Evolution of the Dinosaur
I don’t have a smart phone. I have a dumb phone. It doesn’t tell me when I’m lost. Doesn’t take pictures or show movies. I can’t pay for groceries with it. And when it rings, I don’t even answer it due to the proliferation of “junk mail” calls. Its basic purpose is to call for help if I get a flat tire between home and Walmart.
But most people I know do have smart phones. Including middle and high school students. And teachers. And administrators—who send messages to the staff via an app for emergencies. I never got these missives unless the teacher next door knocked on my classroom door to keep me apprised.
Yet, students were barred from using cell phones. Some teachers made the kids put their phones in a basket near the door upon entering the classroom—retrievable at the end of class. Others told students to keep their phones in their pockets, and confiscated devices that crept out of hiding. But smart phones should not be regarded as the new spitballs or paper airplanes that have confounded teachers for decades, but a proper extension of the curriculum.
Rather than banning phones, schools should embrace them and incorporate them into lessons. Maybe even supply them—for school use—to kids who don’t own one. They are a fact of life. Phone-bearing students have access to calculators, dictionaries, maps, news, encyclopedia entries, anything! These kids are armed! Teach them how to use their weapons in a socially responsible manner!
I am a dinosaur. I come from an era when females, old and young, had to wear dresses to school. When girls took Home Economics and boys took Shop and never the twain shall meet! I don’t know how to Twitter. I don’t “do” Facebook. And I am getting farther and farther behind merely by sitting still. (But not as bad as my brontosaurus mother who will tell you that computers are all “a friggin’ nuisance.”)
I can remember when pocket calculators first arrived on the scene (too big for girls’ pockets—but that’s another story). Students weren’t allowed to use them. Ever. That was cheating. Now students take tests for which they are advised to bring their calculators. If they don’t own one, a calculator might be supplied.
I didn’t learn to drive until I was well into my 20s. But our kids took Driver’s Ed in high school. They were taught to drive responsibly and learned when not to drive—but to call home, no questions asked.
We didn’t have guns in our house but knew families that did. They made sure their kids understood how the guns worked, when to use them, and how to safely store them. Now there are “hunting clubs” in schools that teach such lessons.
Guns and cars have their place, but also have the capacity to maim and kill indiscriminately. Smart phones have this capability as well. Kids will learn to use them maliciously without guidance. Let’s teach them to respect this powerful tool and use it for the betterment of the human race.
I must confess— since my husband died, I have been thinking of getting a smart phone. He was one of those guys who would never ask for directions, but together, we usually found our way. Now, driving long distance alone can knock the wind out of me. And even old dinosaurs can learn new tricks.
But I fear I’d be severing the last thread of my dwindling privacy. What is it with dinosaurs and privacy?