Thompson: What To Do About Teens and Texting?
The recent Pew study on cell phones found that students condemn "arbitrary enforcement or a lack of clarity around school rules for mobile phones." Pew also found that "in-class texting varies little with regard to the aggressiveness of a school’s regulation" of phones.
Indeed, there's no easy way to enforce the rules. "If you get caught using your phone you can pull out a fake phone, turn it on and give it to them," said one student. I’ve fallen for that one. And in retrospect, perhaps I should have adopted the typical strategy of confiscating phones seen in class and then returning them at the end of the period so the next teacher could repeat the process. Instead I fought the losing battle of enforcing the school's rule that parents must retrieve confiscated phones.
But all is not lost. Parents who limit their children’s text messaging, get positive results. Schools could get
Media: New York Magazine Profiles Eva ("Evil") Moskowitz
“Custodians did not clean 2nd-floor landing. Please talk to them about doing their job.” -- Text message from charter exec Eva Moskowitz quoted in this unflattering New York Magazine profile.
RTTT: Backing Up The Truck
Defining low performing schools "entirely differently from how the ESEA does" is the mismatch between ARRA and RTTT that is going to have the most practical effect on how school reform works going forward. But it's not
But all is not lost. Parents who limit their children’s text messaging, get positive results. Schools could get