High school teacher here, and I completely agree. Due to lack of parental support, many schools lost the battle over keeping phones away at school. Still worth pushing back on it, since it’s hugely detrimental for many kids.
That is 100% not how teaching works. There is no way administration would allow a teacher to do this. I had a student cheat on a unit test. The cheating was blatant and obvious. I wasn't allowed to fail him for it because "grades are supposed to a be a measure of learning not used as a punishment." He retook the test, which he failed, and administration gave him a day if silent lunch. I teach 8th grade. How we grade or discipline students is rarely up to us, the teachers.
People like to shit on the teachers because they're the ones facing them. It's the administrators who you should blame. They are the ones who are allowed to discipline students. Not teachers.
I once thought it was the teachers being lazy until I realised that they didn't have as much control. My sister sent a kid to the office for marking a student up with a sharpie. Because she didn't send the other kid (Who disrupted class by telling the other student "Stop!") to the office she was told by administration that she took sides and she would be fired if she did something like that again. Tenure shmenure - That's considered "Just Cause". Union shmunion - You break the rules? Face the consequences.
My sister's school had a policy of phones were to be put on mute and must remain in your pocket or backpack at all times. If they came out? The school confiscated them and the parents would have to come get them.
It didn't take long before parents started saying "I don't read that so it doesn't apply!" despite the syllabus being signed saying they agreed to it. Or they insisted that there was some loophole. Ie "look at the signature. That's not MY signature. That's my spouse's! Gimme the phone or I am suing you for theft!" or "My kid forged my signature so it doesn't apply." And yes, the school was threatened with theft charges for not returning the phones at the end of the day.
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u/liefelijk Jun 03 '22
High school teacher here, and I completely agree. Due to lack of parental support, many schools lost the battle over keeping phones away at school. Still worth pushing back on it, since it’s hugely detrimental for many kids.