The problem with cell phones in school has nothing to do with the cell phones themselves. The problem has more to do with our increasing impatience with life.
Kids are, by their nature, impatient. They can't wait for their birthday. They can't wait for Christmas. They can't wait for summer. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? And this impatience grows, to where they can't wait to tell their friends what happened ten seconds ago. Remember the song "The Telephone Hour" from Bye Bye Birdie? It's the same syndrome.
Somehow, some learn patience, but others don't. They seek throughout their lives a way to make things "easier" (which often means of lesser quality), "simpler" (right, like programming a VCR), "faster". Well, to be honest, just faster.
We've "progressed" from making macaroni and cheese by cooking the macaroni, developing a sauce, and baking it - to pulling a box of Kraft Macaroni-
'n-Cheese from the shelf and having the dish ready in less than half an hour, to shoving a pre-mixed bowl of EasyMac into the nuker and stuffing our faces within seconds. At each stage, the quality goes down, but we're impatient and willing to make the sacrifice.
Oh, yes, it's faster to get a meal at McDonalds. And if you never pay attention to the taste, you never notice how shoddy it is.
The same is true of communications. We've gone from writing letters to sending telegrams to sending e-mails to IMing, and the language has become briefer in the process. LOL.
And there is a side effect to all this speed. We are also trivializing the messages we send and those we receive. Again, the quality has dissipated. What was once a newspaper article covering several pages became an hour-long news special report, but is now a sound bite. There is no detail.
Let's get back to that question about the cell phone call from the mother serving in Iraq to her son. A couple of generations ago, the soldier would have written a long, heartfelt letter to (usually) his family, that would have been treasured by all, and in turn he would have treasured every letter he received. There was no instant communications worldwide. Mama couldn't have called in the middle of the schoolday, interrupting his classes, making her call more important than his continuing life. The letter would have been waiting for him when he returned home. (I cringe thinking of the reverse, when he calls to tell her about a football game, and she has to tell him "Mommy can't talk right now, she's in the middle of a firefight. Kisses.") If there was something truly important, the call would be sent through the school office, who would in turn send the student a note to come to the office...and it had better not be something trivial interrupting the daily flow! Impatience and triviality now rule.
I say ban the use of cell phones in school. I say ban the use of cell phones by people driving cars, another breach of patience and care.
And I say stop and really listen to people, instead of to sound bites. I say stop and read a full message, instead of just the captions to the photographs. I say stop and enjoy a meal, instead of eating while you drive and spilling your coffee in your lap and half your french fries under your seat.
Of course, will these wishes be granted? LOL.
