DALS Lifelong Learning Network

The past few days there have been several local news reports about more and more public school districts that have "banned" the use of mobile phones by students during school hours. And the data shows pretty clearly that such policies greatly reduce the incidents where students are abusing other students via mobile phone text messages and apps, and students appear to do much better with their classroom learning when their mobile phones are switched off and not available during the school day.

Different public school districts are using slightly different policies and some require the students to place their mobile phones in locked, secure bags in the classrooms or in other secure locations.

In the history of the United States we have periodically engaged in "banning" a variety of things, and the use of "bans" seems to be a preferred way to solve perceived problems. It would be much better, especially in this present situation with students' mobile phones, to actually have the adults engage in conversations with the students about the whole issue of the use and abuse of mobile phones, and to help the students to learn how to use their mobile phones in ways that are responsible, humane, honest, helpful and supportive, and to help them understand that the use of texts or sexts or certain apps to attack and embarrass other students is wrong and very dangerous on many levels. We have reported incidents where students who have been abused with mobile phones have committed su***de.

"Banning" certain behaviors is relatively easy and at first it feels good and it seems to quickly address the problems at hand. Over time, however, we have learned hard lessons about "banning" things, and the whole Prohibition movement is a great example of quick actions that soon led to even more serious problems, because organized crime took over the manufacture, sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages so the problem became a thousand times worse. It is much better to go slowly at first, and to take the time to have in-depth conversations with everyone who is involved: students, parents, other family members, teachers, staff and community leaders, BEFORE putting "bans" in place. And once again, we adults must take the time to actually LISTEN carefully to our children and young adults and to treat their feedback with respect.

New York Times article this morning:

During the two years of the Covid Pandemic our K-12 school children "fell behind" in mathematics, and this reality should come as no surprise to anyone.

Also, when the K-12 public schools closed down or restricted their time schedules, due to the Covid pandemic, those students who were able to get some "in person" instruction from teachers "fell behind" 0.35 years, while those students who were engaged only in "online instruction" "fell behind" 0.57 years. And here again, this data should come as no surprise to anyone.

During the Covid Pandemic "online teaching" was not very successful, because:

1. Most K-12 teachers had little or no training or experience with online teaching, and most students had little or no experience with online learning, and many family homes didn't have computers or Internet access.

2. Most K-12 teachers did the best that they could and they tried to transfer their "in person" lessons and teaching/learning processes to "online," but this simply did not work very well because "online" teaching and learning requires entirely different processes, methods and relationships.

3. Student learning and achievement in mathematics struggled the most because mathematics is a sequential curricular subject area, and when students miss out or do not fully understand how to to a certain math operation, then they struggle with subsequent operations.

And what the Covid Pandemic revealed about the whole K-12 teaching/learning experience was that in our present K-12 school systems, the students were already struggling, and so were the teachers, because our school organizational systems are broken and obsolete, and the Covid Pandemic just made things ten times worse.

And we must hasten to add that when the students "fell behind" that reality WAS NOT THE FAULT of the teachers, the students or the parents. It was the fault of our present K-12 SCHOOL SYSTEMS, which are essentially old industrial assembly lines, where the students are all required to learn the same things, at the same pace, and in the same way.

What we need are school systems that empower teachers to deliver teaching and learning that is individualized, personalized and customized to the learning needs of each individual student. And we know that this works because we have been doing it for a long time with our special needs students.

So instead of a focus on the whole problem of students "falling behind," we need to refocus on rebuilding our school systems with and entirely new model of K-12 education.

And we also need to acknowledge that all of the problems we are now seeing in our K-12 schools have been exacerbated and made much worse by all of the political conflict and political attacks on our K-12 schools by certain Red state governors and legislatures, and by political attacks on local school boards by Trump loyalist parents and local politicians. And all of these attacks have resulted in K-12 teachers retiring early or leaving their teaching careers for other jobs and careers, so we now have a nation-wide shortage of over 300,000 K-12 teachers and that shortage is growing every day.

Our K-12 teachers used to be respected, and supported, and valued, but now they are under attack almost every day, and they are working in K-12 schools that are overcrowded, unsafe, and old. Many school buildings have totally inadequate HVAC systems, leaky roofs, broken windows, broken furniture, and a big shortage of books and teaching materials and supplies. And as we have witnessed far too often, our students and teachers have been the victims of violent mass shootings.

So yes, our precious children and young adults are "falling behind" and we need to take direct action to rapidly address all of these issues right now, but our Congress is broken and clogged up by the Trump Loyalists, who simply refuse to even consider these K-12 educational realities. And if we are to save our children and young adults we must come together to rebuild our K-12 school systems and step one is to VOTE BLUE!!