I read with interest the opinion expressed that teachers could collect cell phones.
Although I do not support the use of cell phones in schools, let’s examine the practicalities of phone collection.
With 30 students, dropping them off at 15 seconds each, this could take 10 minutes. If the phones were gathered in a padded lockable suitcase, who is now responsible for 30 phones worth $500 each?
To redistribute at recess, this would take longer, let’s say 15 minutes.
Done twice a day, this takes away 50 minutes of instructional time, which is a whole math class.
Some will need to be charged in classrooms where there are already few electrical outlets. At gym, library or computer lab time, would the teacher carry the suitcase around the school or would a student do so?
Let the teachers have uninterrupted instructional time with the students.
Instructional time is already eroded with the collection of money for photos, hot lunches, field trips, and fund raisers.
Wendy Girard
Prince George
