Children will soon be prevented from bringing mobile phones into Dutch classrooms. Sources close to the Cabinet confirmed that schools will have until October 1 figure out how they can arrange the restriction on their own. If that fails, national rules may be introduced to restrict the use of telephones in schools. Unnamed sources also confirmed the story to ANP, after it was first reported by AD and RTL Nieuws.
When adults talk about education, they always think back to when they were in school. Often years ago. Often you’ll get someone who brings up that Socrates quote where he complains about the kids being lazy.
But it really is different. Covid, lockdowns and omnipresent social media have changed things. Childhood mental health issues and suicides have spiked in many countries. Sure, that’s partly down to increased diagnosis, but you’d expect suicides to go down if we were diagnosing more of them.
When I was a teacher until quite recently, I had kids recording tiktoks in the middle of lessons. When you called them out on it, there’d be physical altercations. They’d have panic attacks. They’d listen to music during classes, then get upset when you told them to switch it off. Throwing literal tantrums, crying because you asked them to switch off their phone. Complaining about not being able to listen to music during a test, that kind of thing.
A teenager who knows the rules, and knows to hide their phone? Normal behaviour. Healthy even.
A teenager who doesn’t hide their phone, and cries when you take away their phone? Not normal behaviour. Immature. Maladjusted.