nixCraft 🐧Swedish government announced that the country’s schools would be going back to basics, emphasizing skills such as reading and writing, particularly in early grades. After mostly being sidelined, physical books are now being reintroduced into classrooms, and students are learning to write the old-fashioned way: by hand, with a pencil or pen, on sheets of paper. The Swedish government also plans to make schools cellphone-free throughout the country https://undark.org/2026/04/01/sweden-schools-books/
Draco@nixCraft I think taking away the emergency communication devices from all schoolchildren is probably bad, actually.
pixie@DL_Draco_Rex
only if you are in the US.
Adults will remain in possession of their communication devices.
@nixCraft
only if you are in the US.
Adults will remain in possession of their communication devices.
@nixCraft
Cassandrich@pixie @DL_Draco_Rex @nixCraft Mass shootings aren't the only reason children need to have access to a communication device and recording device. There is also bullying (by other kids and by adults) and the adults cannot be trusted to handle that responsibly.
@dalias @DL_Draco_Rex By experience, I would say that it solves less problems than it creates.
Where I'm from, cellphone use is banned in schools since last year (apart from specific pedagogical uses, accessibility or health needs) and the difference it made was huge - kids are back at running around and playing together at recess, communication is better between everybody, focus improvement and several adolescents even thanked the ban, in our student assembly, because they felt it helped them with their addiction to the phone. Also, now we have more authority to deal with ciberbullying, which has been a huge problem for us - bigger then physical (or analog) bullying.
(They still use computers, and in our school we are considering to reduce the use, but not banning.)
Where I'm from, cellphone use is banned in schools since last year (apart from specific pedagogical uses, accessibility or health needs) and the difference it made was huge - kids are back at running around and playing together at recess, communication is better between everybody, focus improvement and several adolescents even thanked the ban, in our student assembly, because they felt it helped them with their addiction to the phone. Also, now we have more authority to deal with ciberbullying, which has been a huge problem for us - bigger then physical (or analog) bullying.
(They still use computers, and in our school we are considering to reduce the use, but not banning.)
@pixie @DL_Draco_Rex There's a big difference in having them out playing with them when it's interfering with learning and having them on their persons in case they deem something important enough to accept the consequences of breaking a rule. The latter should never be banned.
Regarding socializing/playing together, this is simply not something that's going to happen for some kids, especially when their in-person peers are a homogenous bunch with nothing but normie neurotypical interests. Taking away the potential for connection and friendship from them is cruel.
@dalias @DL_Draco_Rex I feel there's some projecting happening here.
Also some misunderstanding of how things might or might not be implemented.
Here, kids may have their phones, but in their lockers or backpack or turned off.
The phones WHERE being previously being used to film colleagues and teachers, without their consent, guided by extreme conservative parents, to generate "proof" of indroctination and so on.
When public policy is made, in serious places (I am deliberately excluding the US in this matter), we take into account data, studies (or the lack of it), and consider the bigger picture, instead of specific personal issues. I work and study technology and education for over a decade. When policies like this ban are made, they calculate the pros and cons.
@pixie @DL_Draco_Rex Yeah, okay, that's entirely reasonable. What's not reasonable is confiscating phones when they enter the building or something like that.
Like, you shouldn't just be able to record people without their consent normally, without facing consequences for it. But you absolutely should be physically capable of doing it, in case there's a real need to document something horrible happening, as long as you're willing to accept the consequences of breaking that rule.
@pixie @DL_Draco_Rex I just wouldn't call the policy you're talking about a "ban". It's more like a usage policy.