Judging by Daniel Buck’s credentials, it is unlikely he and I would agree on much politically. However, his opinion piece on a statewide ban of cell phones in schools is spot-on (“If WI wants to improve mental health, grades, then ban cell phones in schools,” Sept. 4).
In the last 10 years of my 30-year career in a classroom, it was a constant battle to keep kids off their smart phones. The destructive effects of social media and the endless distractions caused by phones caused more problems than almost any other force I experienced.
Young people need to learn to focus, and they can’t do that when finely tuned algorithms continually feed them content. I believe in local control for many aspects of education and am well aware of dubious trends, but this conservative man is calling for a statewide ban, and he’s right.
Politicians, this is an opportunity for government to do something good on a large scale.
John Parrish, Germantown
Maybe classroom cell phone ban goes too far. But perhaps a course on best way to use them is needed.
A wise environmentalist once told me: “The best environmentalists won’t tell you not to do a bad thing, they’ll show you the safest way to do the bad thing.”
Maybe we don’t need to ban cell phones from classrooms, but need to require a course teaching the safest way to use them (“If WI wants to improve mental health, grades, then ban cell phones in schools,” Sept. 4).
Driver’s ed in tenth grade, scrollers ed in sixth grade
Tim Haering, Shorewood
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Is cell phone ban really the answer or should we teach kids best way to use them? | Letters
Reporting by Letters to the Editor / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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