EDITORIAL – Cellphone addiction in schools needs to be broken
Wherever we go, our cellphones must be with us. (Image: Mel Rothenburger)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
A BAN ON CELLPHONES IN SCHOOLS has gone into effect in Ontario. Good for Ontario.
Many educators defend allowing students the use of cellphones because they say it’s a good educational tool.
But the Ontario public is overwhelmingly in favour of the ban, which includes all electronic devices capable of accessing the Internet. The reason is simple: students should focus on studies, not social media.
No provincewide ban is in the offing for B.C. but bans are not unheard of here. Two years ago, a school in Victoria imposed a ban, calling cellphones “detrimental” compared to the “extremely small” educational benefits. I wrote about it at the time.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
In some ways it seems so long ago when the first “hand held” electronic calculators became available. I bought a Texas Instruments unit that did scientific calculations.
The first semester at Radio College of Canada, we still used slide rules, pencil, paper and an understanding of exponents (powers of 10). I still have that slide rule but am pretty certain most younger folks who are familiar with social media wouldn’t recognize a slide rule.
I would consider something like a slide rule an educational tool whereas chatting with one’s friends during an exam was considered cheating.
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