There is probably nothing more rewarding for the veteran news columnist than to see those in public office come around to endorsing and implementing his once mockingly unpopular warnings and predictions.
Where his once “out-of-touch,” “old-fogie” notions of how public institutions (like education) should operate become newly minted policy.
It has truly been a very rewarding summer for me in this regard. Specifically knowing that provincial governments and school boards have effectively admitted what conscientious educators like me have been saying and writing for over a decade on cellphone use in schools. That is that smartphones and other personal electronic devices are bad for education, and that students view them as an entertainment portal and a distraction.
Indeed, one of the first columns I wrote for The Toronto Sun in May 2011 was on this very topic and was prompted by the Toronto District School Board dropping its restriction on cellphone use in schools. Refuting the baseless yet popular belief that teenagers can always be trusted to use their cellphones for academic purposes, my Sun column on May 25, 2011 asserted that “it is truly naïve to think that teens will inherently use devices like smartphones to enhance their ability to learn in class.”
As the years passed, my frustrating, lonely, losing battle trying to contain and restrict cellphone use in my class was repeated in three additional contributions on this topic to the Sun and elsewhere during the 2010s.
So, indulge me please as I now go for the journalistic jugular and remind the public as to who was behind the endorsement of cellphone use in 2011 beginning with the Premier’s Office.
That’s right, looking back through the news archives and my notes I am reminded that the executive push to drop all cellphone restrictions in school came from the then self-fashioned “education premier” Dalton McGuinty who went public with his support for smartphones in school. According to the CBC, McGuinty stated in 2010 that smartphones were “conduits for information today” and that “it’s something we should be looking at in our schools.”
At the TDSB, the May 2011 motion to allow cellphone use was brought to a vote by then teenage student trustees Zane Schwartz and Jenny Williams with grown-up Trustee Mari Rutka. One does not have to go far beyond the preamble of the 2011 motion to realize just how out of touch and anti-learning the TDSB teenaged and grown-up trustees were at the time.
The 2011 recommendation stated in part:
Whereas the use of personal electronic devices is becoming increasingly prevalent amongst students and staff; and whereas, personal electronic devices along with the internet and social media websites provide a source of information and networking amongst students, whereas the Director’s Vision of Hope clearly advocates for technology to be used in schools …
I would need a lot more editorial space to fully address the true extent of the absurdly naïve assumptions in the 2011 resolution. Suffice it to say that, as I stated in my Sun column on Nov. 25, 2018, cellphone use among teachers in class remained strictly forbidden post-2011 as I plainly encountered in my own work as a union representative and observing at least one known disciplinary hearing at the Ontario College of Teachers.
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Admittedly, cellphone use was certainly becoming “prevalent” among teenagers by 2011. Okay, but so was vaping, smoking pot, assaulting teachers, and opioid and other prescription drug addiction. What’s your point Mr/Madam Trustee?
And yes, the 2011 resolution also ensured teachers would have final say whether or not cellphones would be allowed in class. But try being, as I was, one the few teachers in my school who still forbade cellphone use. Where the young, weak, woke principal, desperate for student approval, no longer supports teachers who try to confiscate phones.
These days, refusing to follow the herd in teaching “fads” could indeed get one trampled.
Are there any lessons to be learned from this utterly failed and futile education experiment?
We can start by waking up to the reality that every new trend or fad in information technology does not necessarily translate into a positive when it comes to learning at the elementary and secondary level.
Sadly, though, we seem to be going down that exact same path when it comes to AI with school boards and university faculty encouraging teachers to look at AI “as an opportunity”. Just like they all once touted the non-existent academic benefits of iPhones.
Surely there may be an opportunity somewhere with emerging AI – just not necessarily in a classroom full of developing teenagers in need of learning and cognitive brain development.
– Robert Smol is a retired teacher and military veteran. He is currently completing a Ph.D in History. Reach him at [email protected].