Lisa,

I have been teaching ESOL in the county for sixteen years, the last five of which so disastrous due to device-abuse in my classes and school that I am strongly considering quitting at the end of this academic year. On a lark, desperate for a voice that would corroborate mine, I did a google search for MCPS/cellphones, an act that fortuitously led me to the  article published in Bethesda Magazine this past August. The following are some of reactions to and musing about this matter.

Today's student is far more in-tune with his Samsung Galaxy s10 then the world around him. Consider the following chain of events, typical of any high or middle school in the county:  Students enter the classroom (most likely already wed to their phones), perch themselves in their usual seats, and proceed to busily queue up a long list of favorite video games and/or social network platforms they intend to access during class.  (There are some who choose to dive head-first into the musical landscapes Apple Earbuds lend. I've seen kids looking at porn, too.)  The bell rings, and the teacher, years of experience and a masters degree under his belt, begins instruction, jazzed by the concept of his molding the youth, the future generation, satisfying a weighty charge for which he is well qualified and paid.  His euphoria is killed, almost at the outset, though, as he quickly realizes that what he is actually doing is performing a grand monologue - yet again - for an audience utterly lost in the self-serving tangles of a technology MCPS is too cowardly to ban.  Frustrated and doing his best to contain his anger, the teacher stops, goes silent, and then advances toward the usual suspects, politely asking them to part with their devices so that learning can occur.  After all, they are in a school, not a Starbucks.  But instead of witnessing a body of young minds acknowledging the error of their ways and subsequently obeying an authority figure who wants the best for them, our fearless purveyor of knowledge and love of learning is met with insolence and a chillingly blatant disregard, the troublesome bi-products of continuing to give free reign to beings who aren't yet mature enough to handle the wild prospect of freedom.  (And this type of behavior and apathy towards education sadly accompanies them to higher education, too, according to my friends who teach at MC.)

Like you, I have reached out to MCPS' specialists to inform them of the gravity of the matter.  However, none of those I spoke with seemed to agree with me or were too afraid to take a stand.  The county's chief executive officer wrote me that he was convinced that if given the option, students would choose to use their devices to complete assignments rather than use them to send emoji-ladden texts to their friends in the classes down the hall; the chief executive of technology, while far more sympathetic to my exhortation during our meeting last year, ended up brushing off the matter late in our conversation, claiming the county simply didn't have the "technology" to stop such misuse. And when I asked the head of our school's security and one of my current assistant principals what they do when students are referred because of cell-phone abuse, they sheepishly admitted to acting contrary to the school's policy of confiscation, maintaining that they would be responsible for the devices should they go lost or broken.

So what to do?  We all know phone-use in classrooms is stunting our students' learning and de-legitimizing the teaching profession so much so that instructors are leaving in droves. But MCPS doesn't seem to want to acknowledge this, too stuck in its politics to see the bigger picture and logical solutions to their concerns against banning/regulating devices.  It argues that students must have cellphones so that they can stay in contact with parents should an emergency arise. Okay, but If parents or legal guardians need to reach their loved ones, why not do it the old fashioned way: Call the school directly!  The secretary then buzzes the classroom; the teacher then releases the student. It's that easy.  It also claims that kids' carrying devices makes schools safer.  Again, point well taken.  Ensuring that all faculty members and students are always out of harm's way is one of the more significant responsibilities of any institution of learning, and as we have seen in many of the abhorrent gun-violence attacks in our nation's schools, phones can assist in diffusing such incidents fast.  But safety and learning don't have to be mutually exclusive, and focusing solely on one at the expense of the other is wildly destructive.  Making our schools safe can be effectuated simply by bolstering our schools' policeman allocations. Installing fingerprint-registers and some sort of aesthetically pleasing metal detectors at all entrances might help, too. There is no such thing as a fail-proof system to safeguard everyone's well-being, no matter how thorough.  You do what you can, praying for the best.  However, continuing to ignore the negative effects phones are having on the next generation just because you fear an attack, something that is HARDLY probable -but possible - at the expense of giving kids the tools they need to succeed both personally and professionally, is, well, criminal, especially given the poorer populations at many of our schools, who aren't benefiting in the slightest by having unfettered phone-access between the bells.

So I ask you, Lisa, what do we need to do to help MCPS see the light?  Would having someone capture the aforementioned conduct on film help?  Are members of the board of education willing to go to our schools to see this atrociousness first hand?  Sorry to bombard you with all this ranting and questioning, but I am losing grip on the knot I tied at the end of my rope some years ago....

-M