Essay on Cell Phones Should not Be Allowed in School

It is not a secret that cell phones play an important role in our life. They can be used in case of emergency, and just to stay in touch with relatives and friends. Cell phones are modern electronic devices for having conversations across the large geographical areas or distances by means of electrical waves. Cell phones give an opportunity not only to have a conversation, but also to send messages, listen to music and surf the web (Bettivia, 2010, p.40). Today it is rather difficult to imagine our life without cell phones. It is known that the greater part of people on our planet use cell phones. However, cell phones should not be allowed in school because they can create many problems for students and teachers, including serious disciplinary and social problems, and problems with learning process.

Cell phones create an increased amount of disciplinary problems during the school day which can lead to the students’ distraction. One of the problems is that cell phones can ring during the class, and, of course, the students’ attention will be diverted from the theme of the lesson to the phone call (Unger, 2007, p.354). If cell phones are not silenced, they can ring during the class and draw the students’ and teachers’ attention away from the lesson. The situation is extremely irritating when several cell phones began to ring at the same time. Of course, the flow of learning will be disrupted in this case. Many teachers and school principals worry that this type of distraction has negative impact on the school performance of students because it prevents them from dedicating their attention to their academic process.

Moreover, in many classrooms, teachers notice that students check their cell phones over and over again during the lesson. In many cases, teachers fail to attract their students’ full attention. Instead of engaging in deep thoughts on this or that academic discipline, the so called “cellphone obsessed students” are preventing themselves from thinking deeply about the issue discussed in the classroom (Pendleton, 2011, para.2). Today the learning process in school is based on exchanging ideas with others. Cell phones create obstacles to the effective carrying out of learning activities. According to James E. Katz at Rutgers University, the survey revealed that about 41% of the students in schools had checked their messages during the lesson, 34% of students had played with their cell phones because they felt bore in the classroom, 29% of students had answered a call during the lesson and about 23% of students spoke to their friends on the cell phone during the class (Pendleton, 2009, para.3). It means that instead of thinking about the lesson, a significant number of students are thinking only about their personal affairs. They are engaging in the behavior which can easily distract other students in the class. It is not a secret that many students prefer to chat during the classes. They produce noise and the teachers have no opportunity to deliver new material in a proper way (Bettivia, 2010, p.41).

Moreover, cell phones in school create serious problems with the level of the grades. According to McGraw-Hill’s Teaching, today cell phones allow students to send each other answers and help texts during tests, exams or quizzes in schools. It means that cell phones can be used to hold and display different cheat sheets. It is known that in the past, most students in schools and universities used to write the answers to the academic tests on their hands. Today, due to the development of new information technologies, they can easily scroll through unlimited text in their cell phones in order to find the appropriate answer to the question of the test (Bettivia, 2010, p.42).

Besides the above mentioned factors, allowing cell phones in school can cause a number of social problems. It is known that the development of new technologies has enormous impact on the production of cell phones. Today there is a great variety of new models of cell phones which have many new functions and modern design. Many students choose the most expensive models of cell phones in order to be the best. Kids pay attention to their appearances and financial status of their parents. In case students are not fortunate enough to buy stylish cell phones, they could be teased by the other students in the class. In many situations, cell phones can create conflicts in the group, and the progress in studies can be reduced. It means that cell phones can be the tool of discrimination in school (Thompson, 2010, p.317).



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