Why schools being allowed to search kids for iPods is stupid

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If they are using an IPOD like that in class, then they are not paying attention TO THE CLASS BEING TAUGHT which seems to be the crux of the problem. No use sending them to school if all they lrn z hw 2 txtspk lol. If they can be incorporated as learning aids then hurrah for that, but allowing students to faff about in class has ALWAYS been a no-no, right back to when it was carving rude words in the wax tablets.

As for the post about "what if a student needs to be contacted for an emergency..." Mobiles are a relatively new phenomena. For a very long time the correct route of contact was.. "Oh I have an emergency. Does little Jimmy need to know? If no, then I'll tell him when he gets home. If yes, I'll ring the school. If little Jimmy is in the class he is supposed to be in, then it shouldn't be to hard to locate him, given that we have registers and timetables and all that." And thusly, most emergencies were related in good time. Telling Jemima that her goldfish died in the middle of double-maths is pointless and frankly the wrong time to do it, and odds are that there are very few emergencies that involve children where the child is a vital part of the proceedings, and if they are.. see above.

So you think kids need iPods to distract themselves? What they seem to do at the moment is entertain themselves by disturbing the entire class - shouting random crap, throwing things, etc. I'd much rather such people watch stuff on iPods and risk their own grades rather than risk the education of the whole class.

The point is, though, iPods can also be used to listen to music, and if you're sitting in a classroom doing your work with some music playing in the background, it's been scientifically proven to help you concentrate (as has chewing gum, in fact), so I don't get the objection. If someone does start watching videos on it, it wouldn't exactly be subtle anyway (tip: the kid that's looking down at something in his hands and not doing any work is probably watching videos ).

And there are also studies that suggest listening to music is zero help at all to concentration...

Only responding to one tiny part of my wider point only helps my argument.

And anyway, brain scans have proven that music helps you pay attention, check this: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 122226.htm

It also says, "No previous study, to the researchers' knowledge, has directly addressed the question of event segmentation in the act of hearing and, specifically, in music." So those studies you were talking about, assuming they exist, didn't even address the same aspect as this one.

Listening to music while doing work helped me stay on task rather than going off into my own world or disrupting the class. In high school, we were not allowed to listen to music in most classes.....I usually ended up drawing and doodling instead of working on my math or my science.. In college, they were more flexible...and I was able to listen to my Ipod when there was not a lecture and we were just doing our work. I got more done and my work was better quallity....Some people actually have in their IEPs that an Ipod is required in order to keep the kid focused and not disruptive.

Pointing out that kids can distract themselves with almost anything isn't a supporting argument.I did point that out myself, hence not arguing with it. Its a matter of fact well known. Helping them out by allowing them access to things they can be even more distracted by is simply not helping the case.

If someone is determined enough to convert notes or cheats into an mp3 format on their ipod, so be it. They're going to find another way to do it.

Some more reasons: IPODS incorrectly used can damage hearing. Children are past masters at incorrectly using items. (which is why they took to supervising the kids using the band-saw more)

In a school environment, IPODS etc can and do become fashion accessories and status symbols. (Your phone is crap. Mine is better. Now I will bully you. You only have a generic mp3 but I have an IPOD, therefore your parents are poor. Now I shall bully you. Your music is s**t, you listen to gay songs. Now I will bully you.)

IPODS etc are not cheap. They are expensive electrical items that are easily lost/damaged/stolen. If I buy my son a £180 electrical item and he loses it, he's in the s**t. If someone steals it from him, THEY are in the s**t. A lot of schools do not wish to get dragged into the inevitable arguments and blame-throwing so they don't want the opportunity to occur.

If a school retains the policy of: you shouldn't have brought it to school, then many children will get the wrong impression from this when their expensive item is stolen/destroyed and the culprits are not punished for theft/destruction. They will only learn that they can do what they like to other peoples property so long as it WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THERE.

IPODS can be a lethal distraction when travelling. People who are given to ignoring the correct instructions on how to safely use an item will likely get hurt. See earlier comment about children using things incorrectly.

Modern smartphones can not only be used to cheat, they are a useful tool in cyber-bullying, and such phones increase the likelihood of real-time cyber-bullying that is very hard to detect.

If children will continuously play bloody awful ringtones and songs on sh***y bass-less phones in public then they will definitely do it in lessons and other places designed to disrupt and annoy.

Maybe, if there were a determined effort to teach children manners and etiquette (or in general) in the use of such tools then such problems would not occur. That I have no issue with. The fact that "blocking out surrounding distractions" (a concept I am well familiar with) helps concentration could be as easily brought about by earplugs or possibly enforcing a better behaved classroom, or even communal music.

I think the motive behind the banning is more ridiculous than the ban itself. Are we seriously still in the post 9/11 vibe?

There are two reasons I can understand the ban. A big one being to prevent the use of such electronics for cheating on tests.

The other would be more beneficial in urban schools with a high crime/violence rate. I kinda scares me how anyone would bring their Ipods or cell phones with them into a low-income public school like that and not risk the possibility of getting it stolen or getting mugged by other students. I had these brand new awesome shiny shoes in 6th grade when I attending a run down middle school in the city and I was paranoid that people would beat me silly to try and steal them off of me. It may sound silly to you, but it has happened to others.

Last edited by raisedbyignorance on 11 Aug 2010, 4:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It's fair enough not allowing them in lessons, but if they're in your bag only to be used at breaktimes and on the way to/from school, they're not doing any harm, so why shouldn't they be allowed if they're not causing a problem?

Dont you know computers are of the devil

How can they damage your hearing? iPods actually can't, by law, go above a certain volume level for that very reason, and I'm sure other kids and/or the teacher would get annoyed with the music being audible outside of the headphones long before it even gets to that level.



I dunno. This used to be true, but these days everyone has iPods really, and people with other brands of MP3 players usually attract interest if nothing else, because it's a different thing others probably haven't seen before.

People do make comments about each other's music, and they can be both positive and negative, but I what I noticed in my school was that there were different groups of kids who seemed to have matching music tastes, or at least music tastes out of the norm, and those people actually made fun of those who liked the popular stuff, so it depends who you hang out with.

I don't think, however, any of this stuff alone will cause actual bullying. If it does, then the bully in question would have found another excuse to do it anyway.



You can get an iPod shuffle for just over £30, I'd say that's fairly cheap. If price concerns you, try eBay as well.

At my school, pretty much everyone in my year brought their phones in. Many were BlackBerries, which can be sold for about £200-£400 (depending on the model). But it was still very rare that they got stolen. I think, in the 4 years I was there, two or three phones were stolen in the school, that's it. And they were usually found again by the staff. And this is in London as well - a city where theft on the streets is stupidly high.



That's BS. So, what, if something's not meant to be there, that's justification for stealing it? And if it's true that something which isn't meant to be there will get kids thinking it's OK to steal it (which it isn't), then surely the solution is to allow them?



I don't get exactly what it is you're talking about here. Are you talking about someone not listening to directions because of the iPod? Because you don't do a whole lot of traveling at school except getting to and from the place, and it's safe to assume the child can remember their own way home if they do it everyday.

And how the hell can incorrectly using an iPod hurt me? Will pressing the wrong button release the flame thrower?



No it isn't. Cyber-bullying is done over the internet, and it's easy to track who did what on the internet. And not bringing the smartphone to school wouldn't stop the cyber-bullying anyway.

In fact, if anything, someone in your own school cyber-bullying you is better than normal bullying, because you have evidence on your phone of it happening - records of exactly what the bully has said to you, attached to a phone number or IP address which can be traced right back to the bastard.



They won't do that because the teachers would stop them. Headphones exist for a reason.



It's not just about blocking things out, music has an effect on our brains which improves concentration, see the study I linked to a few posts ago.

I'm not sure how this can work. My daughter has a really, really expensive phone, provided by the hospital to aid her in her cognitive function. She has to keep it on her person at all times. Also she is supposed to use it to modify the sound levels in her enviroment, again to aid her cognitive function. Like a lot of aspies she can't cope with noise but she also can't cope if it is too quiet. There has to be a certain level of background noise.

So what will they do? Ban the disabled person from using their medically necessitated aid? Or make an exception for the disabled person bringing about resentment from their peers and further isolating them?

If someone needs it for medical reasons, it will be allowed, I'm sure.

That's what I thought. But then everyone will want to know why she is allowed and not them. They will then either have to have it explained to them, which infringes on her right to privacy regarding her medical condition. Plus why would she want to provide umpleasant individuals with further amo to use against her. Or they will not be told and she will then suffer as a consequence. It's seems to be a lose/lose situation to me.

They'll just say she needs it for special reasons or some crap like that, but odds are the kids will get jealous and make fun as a result. I agree with you, it's unfair.

Though, I had a similar situation where I got to use a laptop in class, and I found it funny how everyone was so jealous