For a couple years now Terrace High School students have felt belittled, violated, and even betrayed by teachers and administrators when our personal electronics are taken away in classrooms. Students don’t fully understand why the abduction is occurring, so an explanation of the situation is in order.
Many students think that taking our electronics away is a violation of our rights. We bought these products and now a third party who had nothing to do with the transaction of the device is taking them. It is very important to know that nothing angers a teenager more then taking away their rights, either real or perceived. Sure, the teachers can ask us to turn them off, but to confiscate them is a violation of our freedom. It also insinuates that we are not mature enough to decide when we need to listen and what conditions we need to learn.
Most high school students should know their own limits about what distractions they could handle. High school students are supposed to be preparing for college and the real world; let them learn from the mistakes that are made. Our generation believes that we can multi-task with everything we do and using our cell phones or iPods during quiet study does not distract us from our work.
I agree we shouldn’t be listening to music while someone is teaching. Why shouldn’t we be able to use our iPods or send a text? There is nothing stopping our ability to focus on many things at once. Things may not get all of our attention and we might get bored or distracted more easily, but we can get five things done at once if we put our mind to it. High school students have so much incoming information all the time that we pick out the information needed and everything else becomes white noise. White noise such as a song, can still be pleasing to the ear yet not focus is needed to make it enjoyable.
The main reason high school students don’t understand the strict policies for electronics is because it is not an iPod or phone to us. It’s not instant messaging or surfing the web or even texting. To us it is just a way of life. Technology has become increasingly advanced to the older generations but being born into it and growing up being able to get a answer to every possible question in an instant changes how we think.
We communicate through our phones and iPods. Without the devices, we feel cut off from the world.