Are any other freshmen feeling a slight nostalgia for their senior year of high school? The work was easy, you had absolutely zero responsibility and the only things that mattered were parties and senior week. It was a good life. But do you remember how annoying teachers could be when they accosted you in hallways and stairwells if they managed to catch you sneaking a quick text message?
"Put that phone away, young man, you're not supposed to be using cell phones in the five minute interim between classes in which you are doing absolutely no work and don't need to be paying attention to a teacher."
Yeah -- that annoying teacher.
I can't say I really miss that aspect of my high school education. However, for teenage students in New York City, being weary of cell phone-hating teachers may be the least of their worries relatively soon. The city is currently toying around with the idea of distributing cell phones to students as a means to foster better work ethics and elevated student-set standards. Through the proposed program, minority and lower-income students would receive cell phones through their respective schools. Assuming this goes off without a hitch, the schools themselves will then set up a program by which automated, achievement-promoting text messages will be sent to student cell phones.
Can you imagine? The annoying teacher model gets completely flipped on its head: "Excuse me, young man, where is your cell phone? Why aren't you reading inspirational text messages? Do you want to go to the principal's office?"
If only. Apparently, the students would be required to leave the phones at home during the school day.
In addition to the text messaging, government and education officials are suggesting other ideas to help promote academic achievement. Talk about using celebrity endorsement has emerged (get an "A" and get a call from Jay-Z) along with rumors of paying students for high achievement with respect to their grades, attendance (being on time to school or actually showing up to school) and completion of assignments.
To the extent of what I'm understanding about this matter, I figure there are ultimately only two ways to look at this idea of utilizing cell phones to help foster academic achievement. Either it is a really, really good thing, or it's quite possibly the dumbest educational reform to have ever been proposed.
How could such a proposal be dumb? Well, look at it this way. Are we really at the point in American history and society where the only thing that will keep a student motivated in the classroom is a cell phone? What happened to the good old days when kids just wanted to achieve for fear of feeling stupid, being ridiculed and having one's father slap him upside the head? It seems counter-intuitive to think that a program which will voluntarily give kids what is arguably a form of educational demise -- cell phones -- could have any impact on the general academic trends in a city like New York, let alone the entire country.
But, then again, how could such a proposal be dumb? We live in an era today where people are constantly bombarded by the media and various forms of communication. We watch T.V., we frequent the Internet, we're all switched on and hooked up to our iPods and portable DVD players, and we are all slaves to our cell phones. Let's face it, no one reads anymore. Heck, I'm fairly certain a large portion of this country has forgotten what reading is or that it still exists. We practically get every scrap of our information, communication and education from some technological source.
You could say this is pathetic.
You'd be right, it is pathetic. But, we have to work within the context of the times. If the world of today says, "you're not going to reach through to under-achieving, poor, minority students in New York by telling them to read books," then you have to find some other way.
What better way than to use cell phones? Think about it -- what would happen if cell phones were gradually associated with academic achievement? They become daily, at-their-fingertips reminders for kids about the importance of an excellent education and doing well in school. Sure, it's only a text message, but it's certainly a better message than many kids from impoverished families are receiving. After all, would you rather have some young girl reading some cliché like "knowledge is power" or hearing about the latest article of clothing Paris Hilton neglected to put on her body?
Therefore, I say good for the city of New York and the Bloomberg administration. It's true, it could turn out that their idea doesn't have the desired effect. But, it's creative, innovative, and new. It's a step toward the bigger question of how to improve educational standards in this country as a whole. And so even if you disagree with what is being proposed, you should at least give credit where credit is rightly due.
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