I recently read an article in the local paper about the trouble schools are having with students and cell phones. You've got 2nd graders texting in class, 3th graders checking stock prices on the bus, and 4th graders calling the weather hotline before recess.
Apparently a lot of teachers don't know how to deal with the new distractions brought about by the cellular telephone. I guess the distractions that were around when I was in middle school have taken a back seat to the new technology.
My schoolmates and I used pen and paper to draw Picasso-like pictures of our teachers, the nose and eyes exaggerated to the extreme. We used Elmer's Rubber Cement to make fake boogers. We disassembled spring-loaded ball point pens and reassembled them into small rockets.
We used our calculators to text each other. We'd write secret notes by way of digital numbers; "316008," turned upside down, spells "BOOgIE." Furthermore, "07734," turned upside down, spells "hELL0." If we were looking to stir things up, we'd leave off the zero and just write ""7734."
Our digital vocabulary was about as large as our verbal vocabulary.
In high school the distractions became even greater. Once we got into trigonometry and calculus, we were given scientific calculators. That's when all 7734 broke lose. They were basically little computers intended to graph curves on an x and y axis. But with their technological capabilities, they could also store simple games. Suddenly Tetris and Space Invaders was being played during every class.
What we were doing as students is nothing compared to what's happening now. The article I read said students are using their cell phone cameras to take dirty pictures and send them to one another. I guess that provides new ammo for students to use when they're arguing with their PE teacher about not wanting to shower after PE.
Teacher: "Everyone has to shower. If you're caught getting dressed without one I'll dock you 10 points."
Student: "But Chuck lurks behind the lockers and and takes pictures with his cell phone when we do."
The article also said they're using their cell phone's video cameras to record after-school fights. Frankly, I wish we would have that technology to record some of the fights I saw in Jr. High. The one where Josh Bell got punched in the face and had his glasses broken wasn't half bad.
Or, maybe recording such fights would be helpful to some students. In 5th grade, when I got in a fight with Aaron Bean by the tetherball courts, maybe I wouldn't have gotten detention if some student had recorded it. Then it could have been proved that I was merely fighting in self defense because he wiped grasshopper guts on my arm.
My final word to today's teachers: if you take cell phones away from students, they'll just go back to making rubber cement boogers.
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4 comments:
Check out http://detentionslip.org for all the troubles that are happening in our schools.
Ah, this post brings me back. I fondly remember the graph calculators and the myriad games I had on that thing. I also made my own program, which when you ran it typed out the phrase "Adam is Cool" 1000 times.
I think kids before cellphones and iPods had to be more creative. If you've got one of those devices, you're less likely to get bored during English class. I predict a slump in innovation that doesn't have to do with technological development, which we wont even notice because computers will be doing all the thinking for those people who were fed with a silver electronic. That's the phrase that will replace "silver spoon" by the way. ps great post!
I always made my rubber cement blobs into bouncy balls. I wasn't creative (or disgusting) enough to pretend it was stuff from my nose! What about painting Elmer's glue onto the palm of your hand, letting it dry, and then pretending like you were peeling off your skin? Yeah, kids today are really missing out!
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