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T[_1_]

In article >,
says...
> Dan Abel wrote:
>
> > In article >,
> > (Steve Pope) wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Dave Smith > wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>What cell phone opponents? I don't remember anyone here being
> >>>categorically opposed to cell phones.
> >>
> >>Cellphone opposition is more prominent in the U.K., where activists
> >>routinely topple cellphone masts.
> >
> >
> >
> > Not a very nice thing to do. The masts cause no trouble, it's
> > irresponsible *users* of cellphones that cause the trouble. Cellphones
> > are very useful devices. My family has five, not counting the second
> > one that my daughter carries. We don't "chat" on the phone. We don't
> > talk at the restaurant (although we may answer long enough to say that
> > we'll call after eating), and I don't talk and drive.
> >
> > Some time back (before text messaging), some school board member decided
> > to make a rule that students couldn't have cell phones at school.
> > Certainly, using a cell phone during class is very disruptive. Typical
> > of schools, they just banned them entirely. One day there was a natural
> > disaster, and power and phone service died at the school. The kids and
> > their parents were naturally panicked, since they all knew something was
> > wrong but they couldn't communicate. Well, some of the kids had snuck
> > cell phones in, and so the parents and kids could assure each other that
> > everything was OK and it was just a local thing. At the next school
> > board meeting, the rule was amended so that students couldn't use cell
> > phones during class, but could bring them.
> >
> > My nephew, age 15, has a cell phone and takes it to school, despite the
> > fact that they aren't allowed. He says that the teachers pay no
> > attention to the rule as long as it is used during free time.
>
>
> I substitute teach in our local school district. Use and/or display of
> "electronic devices" is prohibited district wide although enforcement
> varies from school to school. I personally have no objections to the
> use of IPODs and the like assuming I'm not actually testing, lecturing
> or explaining assignments at the time.
>
> In my experience, when an assignment for in-class work has been given,
> allowing the use of MP3 players cuts the noise level in the room by
> about 85%. The players, splitters and headphones come out and the kids
> arrange themselves in various congenial configurations, casually
> juggling computing power and memory that dwarf the machines used to
> guide the first rockets to the moon.
>
> I'm well aware of the presence of cell phones, including my own. My
> only stipulation is that they be turned to silent mode. During a recent
> middle school assignment I took part in a lock-down drill. In the case
> of an armed intruder in the building we were to lock the door to the
> classroom from the inside and slide a piece of paper under the door to
> the hallway. Green if everything was hunky-dory, red if the bad guy was
> in there with us.
>
> Only they didn't give me the key to the room. So the secretary in the
> office tells me, via the intercom, "Have the kids hide along the wall
> next to the door so the bad guy can't see you through the hallway window".
> The classroom para and I looked at each other and I told him, "If this
> was the real thing and we had no way to lock this room you and the two
> biggest boys would be out that window over there and I'd be dropping the
> kids down to you, and me right behind them."

Thanks for the in the trenches story. I always keep my cell on vibrate
anyhow since I abhor the ring tones and other gadgety crap on phones
these days.