2009.06.24
Modern technology in Floyd schools
The Floyd County School Board meets on Monday and will consider some revisions to its "Standards of Student Conduct and Attendance," i.e., the rules for students. Among the revisions is an update for cell phones, mp3 players and other electronic devices. Under the new rules, students would not be allowed to use them anywhere on school property, including buses, during the school day.
This sort of policy is common, but in our Sunday NRV Current editorial, we'll urge the school board to back off a little. By all means, forbid usage during class, but students should be able to use their gadgets during lunch, walking around campus during a free period and other times when it would not disrupt actual learning.
The revisions also include an overly broad statement of potential punishment for kids caught with "pictures that contain nudity" on their devices. We'll urge the board to tweak that language to "illegal pornography" so that it covers child porn, underage possession and obscenity but not health-related and artistic nudity, for example.
Check out the proposed student code. The electronic devices section is on page 7.
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I agree with your urging Floyd county to revise there policy on electronic devices, but this is Floyd we're talking about here, I wouldn't hold my breath on them changing their collective mind about anything.
As I local businessman, I stopped trying to upgrade them in matters of technolgy some time ago.
While I can't prove there is a good old boy policy in place there, but if there is not one, I can't explain why the county and the school system will buy things that cost more money and don't work as well as other products available them.
It seems to me that, once they have made up their mind about a policy, such as the one you have mentioned, or who they do business with, and how they do things in general, they are intractable.
There's a story in there somewhere and I'd love to know what it is.
Comment by John Doe — June 24, 2009 @ 6:49 pm
Obviously you do not teach, or else you would know these devices for the pox upon education that they are! Any exception to a cellphone ban is the thin edge of a wedge that students WILL use to create a hole that you can drive a truck through. Just to give an example, they would argue that using one while going to the restroom does not disrupt actual learning. They will then develop the weakest bladders on the planet! And don't try to say they won't because THEY ARE DOING IT NOW!!!!! These devices are doing more damage to education than you can imagine, and they must be driven out of the schools with strong bans that are strictly and consistently enforced. Nothing else will do.
Comment by Teacher — June 26, 2009 @ 7:17 am
Cell phones should be allowed nowhere outside a locker. If you follow that strictly, the content of the phone is irrelevant to the school system.
Comment by allen bunch — June 26, 2009 @ 8:18 am