Schools go through cycles of problems and debates. Centuries ago the debate surrounded issues about where and if students should be able to smoke at school and if girls could wear pants.
Many of today’s debates deal with the use of technology. Cell phones being the major question. Parents, students, teachers, and school administrators all have opinions on either why or why not children should be allowed to have cell phones at school.
However, the debate is not only limited to the children. Teachers and administrators are now seeing debates among themselves. School principals are witnessing more and more cell phone use by their teachers.
Teachers find it easier to make calls from their cell phones in the room rather than heading down to the office and possibly waiting in line. Some teachers feel that it is better to use the cell phone in their classroom rather than to leave the children unattended to go and make a call elsewhere in the building.
Some of these calls being made pertain to the school. Teachers are returning the calls of parents, calling about sick children, calling about major discipline troubles, or calling to arrange school trips and such. Some of the calls are personal. Teachers keep cell phones on to hear from sick family members or other family issues. Some teachers are simply making doctor appointments and hair appointments.
Regardless of the reason of the call, one cannot deny that if students are not allowed to use their phones during class then teachers should not either. Most school administrators limit teachers to cell phone use to during their lunch and other breaks when students are not present. However, like students, not all teachers follow the rules.
Under extreme circumstances and emergencies, most principals are more than willing to be cooperative about teacher and student cell phone use.
Cell phones can actually be a great help in some situations. For example, when school lets out early for weather conditions the school phones lines are jammed with calls. Cell phones allow for teachers to reach and contact more parents than the school phones alone.