> For example, if there is a homework assignment on the board, rather than wait for everybody to copy it down, kids are told to take a picture of the board

just post the assignment online. Not a reason to allow phones in class.

The point is not to make up reasons to use phones in class but rather to identify opportunities to teach students responsible use of phones, which will exist outside of class and well into the future.

Some do that as well. Generally though, I support teachers pushing a little bit more responsibility onto the kids.

At work, you’d take a picture of the whiteboard with your phone. It’s a valuable life skill.

It's snapping a picture of a whiteboard. It's not a "life skill".

The life skill is the responsible and appropriate use of technology. The worst thing the school can do is come up with constraints so narrow that the kids get through school without having to exercise judgement or restraint.

At least, not one people really need to be taught.

Which is a form of data leak, and generally against company policies, even though most people still do it.

My children do not have cell phones (if they want one they can buy it and a data plan themselves - so far that hasn't happened until they are about 18), but teachers assume that every student has a cell phone. The teachers then ask the kids to do things with their cell phones like you are describing. When my kids say they don't have one they are not believed and receive failing grades for the assignment. I've complained to the principal (the school has a policy of no cell phones) but to no avail.

Assuming you can afford at least some kind of inexpensive phone for your kid(s), this is kind of a messed up position to take. Your children are failing classes because you want to make them purchase their own phones and plans, which of course is not realistic. So they failed because of something completely beyond their control and entirely within yours. As a parent, I’d be ashamed of myself if I had allowed that to happen. Even worse, you seem to be bragging that you deprived your children of this necessary tool.

In modern society, a smartphone and plan is as essential for school age children as the clothing you presumably did not make them engage in child labor to buy.

It's not his fault that the school makes assumptions about the lifestyle that he has chosen for his children. I don't plan on giving my children cell phones, either, and would home school sooner than I would be strong armed by the state into buying a device with limitless potential for evil. I don't think children are prepared to own them, even with internet blocks children end up being constantly bombarded (or seeking out) pornography on school issued laptops, smartphones, or any other internet enabled device. I practice what I preach, and have a phone that is only capable of making phone calls because I believe that constant internet access is a detriment to my concentration and my well being. I am proud of being the bulwark my children need to grow up to be well adjusted adults, and I'm not going to let some administrators think they're the bosses because they were appointed by some bureaucracy that I had no say in whatsoever, or be "ashamed" because some stranger on the Internet says I should be.

> It's not his fault that the school makes assumptions about the lifestyle that he has chosen for his children.

I'm not sure they see it as a lifestyle choice. It's just another thing that they expect kids to have. It's been added to the list of binder, paper, pens, laptop, and gym clothes.

You misunderstand. I'm not depriving them because I want them to buy their own phones. I'm depriving them because my wife and I believe extremely strongly that children should not have mobile devices, period.

At the same time, the school assuming that every kid has access to this, without providing it themselves, is also pretty messed up.

Similar thing happened to me way back in the 80's. The history teacher assumed that every family had a video camera, and the big assignment for the year was for each student to make a video.

When I protested that I didn't have a video camera, she didn't believe me.

Being a resourceful youngster, I managed to get my hands on a second-hand security camera and interface it with my parent's VCR. I ended up getting a D on the assignment because the resulting video was in black-and-white.

I know some of the kids just have old phones from their parents or one of those $40 phones that are hanging in a blister-pack at the drugstore. They use them with the school's wifi so there's no data plan to pay for.

congrats you are actively making your children the weird ones

Weird is good. We started out as a sub-culture of weird ones.

The problem is, that he doesent teach responsible drug use. Which modern phones and the internet basically are. So if you do not show what is appropriate (1 glass of wine) and by example show what you do not (engage in binge drinking) you are not preparing them for the world.

And we all knew how the kid ended up, who never drank a single drink before the class garduated. In diapers in the sickward, after he downed a whole bottle of vodka.

> For example, if there is a homework assignment on the board, rather than wait for everybody to copy it down, kids are told to take a picture of the board.

Bad choice: this is losing one opportunity to get them to write something. As a teacher, one should look for every possible occasion to practice writing, especially when it has a purpose.

I think they can come up with a writing exercise a little more challenging to high school students than "transcribe these instructions".