Ontario Bans Incandescents, TDSB Bans Cell Phones, Broadway Bans Legitimate Theatre

The TDSB's decision to ban cellphones and "other personal communication devices" is so fucking stupid.

Aside from safety concerns (students warning other students if something bad is going on, or parents warning their kids, etc. -- see all recent school shootings), it just makes no sense.

Sayeth the Star: "Plagued by students filming fights on their phones, trying to cheat using the Internet on their phone, playing games in class, summoning spectators to schoolyard brawls and leaving class to take a call, North American schools are grappling with managing this technology."

Those aren't problems with cellphones; those are problems with bullying, cheating, and attention spans. And they're not gonna magically go away by banning the devices. Treat the cause.

Additionally, a lot of students use Blackberrys or PDAs as supplementary agendas, so banning them too is even more stupid, since it'll hinder the students who use technology to help their education (hey, I used a Palm Pilot throughout high school to stay organized).

Even if cellphone or PDA or whatever use in classrooms is off-limits, why on earth are they banned in the halls? What possible benefit could banning cellphone use in hallways have? Between classes, do students have to go outside to talk on their phones to avoid suspension?

Sorry, I cannot get over how mind-numbingly stupid this decision is. If I was still in high school, I'd be even more pissed off. Fortunately, this rule -- like all of the rest of the TDSB's rules probably won't be enforced consistently.

Anyone using a dimmer on a CFL is asking for their house to burn down. I hope that when they phase-out Edison bulbs, they better educate about and provide for proper disposal of CFLs. Those aren't supposed to be thrown in the regular ol' trash.

Despite the amount of them out there and their horrible energy inefficiency, regular light bulbs aren't environmentally toxic and are relatively inert, save for volume.

I think Nova Scotia also has a ban planned. With Stan, under the fan. In the van. Man. (Oops, Sesame Street flashback...)

Try teaching one day David, see if you still think it's "mind numbingly stupid." It's easy to say what you say with no experience on the other end.

When I went to high school, the only cell phones they had were either the size of a book or had a suitcase-like attachment that had to be carried with them. They also cost around $1,274 per minute and had LED displays. Tubular!

In my day, if a parent wanted to contact the kid, they'd call the school office and the kid would be paged. The biggest complaint was not being able to wear a hat with our uniforms, although the school tried banning earrings on guys at one point and all hell broke loose.

I was doing one of those Junior Achievement days, and I wanted to throw a chair at the kids who kept text messaging and taking pictures of each other throughout the entire class.

I understand that cellphones can be disruptive, but it just doesn't make any sense to ban them when they can also equally be really, really beneficial tools for communication. It's not like banning guns or knives, which don't have any positive uses in a school setting (no shit, eh?) and are only harmful -- they're banning a tool that can be used in a number of ways.

Why not just ban paper while we're at it? It can cause harmful cuts to fingers; students can use it to pass disruptive messages to one-another, unbeknownst to their teachers; students can "doodle" on it; it can be used to record information about school fights; students can cheat off of it; and, when crumbled up into a ball, it can be quite loud.

The cellphone ban only applies during school hours and the whole purpose of going to school is to actually try and learn something. If you have a toy where you can essentially e-mail, take pictures and play on the 'net all day, not much learning is going to happen. If your parents really need to contact you during the day, they can contact the front office and if the student is actually where they are supposed to be, they will hear the page and get the message. The issue is stickier with Blackberries and PDAs if they are used for organizing purposes, but here again, I don't think high school students have such busy lives that they find another way to organize themselves.

If the argument to keep the cellphones and PDAs are for school shooting situations, I think there are better ways to go about it. Metal detectors and increased school security will be able to do much more than a bunch of kids calling 911 while shots are being fired.

Besides, don't these devices cost money? Are all kids (or parents) that rich to be able to afford one or both of these devices? This is mostly an issue with the upper middle class who have to purchase every new toy to compensate for something. As the recent Blackberry blackout demonstrated, if people with actual jobs, some of whom make important financial decisions that affect the country's economy, can survive without a Blackberry for a bit, a bunch of spoiled kids with an overinflated sense of self can also do the same from the hours of 8:30 to 3.

The cellphone/electronic device ban during school makes perfect sense. Well done.

david> This ban is not some an anti-technology move. If there is a context where a cell phone can be a learning tool, Teachers and School Boards will be all for it. All cell phone use in my classes, also first year undergrad, is distracting texting and phone calls. Personally I don't care what happens in between classes, but if I see them used in class, I tell the students they're about to loose any chance of getting an A or B -- I see a cell phone, that's the same as being absent. Again, try teaching first and see the challenge.

Ryan: "Those who are used to making agendas with their organizers can do the same as kids who can't afford Blackberrys and Palm Pilots. Write it down."

Dude, have you ever used or had a Palm Pilot or Blackberry? The things keep you organized way more than paper does. It's literally the difference between a computer to help you handle your shit and paper. This debate on cell phone use in school ought to have nothing to do with "buying shit." Why are we introducing something that is utterly irrelevant to the argument -- wealth -- of whether or not students should be allowed to use cellphones in school or not?

Joanne: I agree that cellphone use in class is stupid and rude, but it's important that they are still allowed (albeit, say, set to "Silent"). The Palm Pilot/Blackberry strikes me as more questionable.

Ms. Bling Bling: How would you feel if you were 14 and heard a grownup say, word-for-word, what you did? Generalizing an entire group of people ("adolescents") as negative doesn't exactly lend itself well to your argument.

And Joanne, sorry I didn't respond earlier, but I am and was a big nerd in school and I've stayed in touch with some of my teachers. I think banning cellphones doesn't stop any of the actual problems about the education system, it just slaps a band-aid on the whole mess.

David, I often carry a laptop around with me due to the nature of what I'm studying in college. I find it easier to just write things down than to enter them into the laptop. Look, I don't blame you for using your PDA. I find once people become reliant on certain technologies it's tough for them to let go, regardless of if there is even any kind of advantage to using that technology.

Most recently I've seen people doing it with text messaging. Sending dozens of messages back and forth a day. Spending several minutes typing up a "What time did you want to meet at the theatre? I hear Spiderman 3 is good, did you want to see that? Is it okay if lisa comes too?"

When the same thing can be said in a 10 second phone call.

The truth is, by becoming reliant on technology, you're only becoming less organized. What happens when your blackberry service goes down or your battery dies? Can you even remember your friend's phone number to ask them when they want to see the movie? Having a blackberry or palm pilot is a great way to remember things you shouldn't have to remember in the first place.

Back in the 80s I had the time of my life with Patrick Swayze and I'd never felt that way before.

Banning the bulb is the STUPIDEST thing I have ever heard! Those florescent bulbs are banned in my household!! I hate the morgue-ish hue they give off, I hate the humming they make! I hate that they dont fit in lamp shades and I hate that they burn out almost as fast as regular ones and end up in the trash like the other ones and I mostly hate the inflated, unjustified PRICE! Eco-bulbs are crappy and I'd rather live in the dark than use them. My hope is that by the time that ban is to go in place, someone of importance will find that they are toxic, wasteful, ugly and they also kill baby whales. (maybe not that last one but it would certainly get more attention than my blog. Check out my site: www.amyroger.com, to see my artistic expressions - no flo bulbs!!

Amy, two or three years ago I'd have agreed with you completely. CFLs were absolutely dreadful, giving off this sickly green glow after 5 second waits to even turn on. And the flicker and hum gave me terrible headaches.

Today, most of the bulbs in my house are CFLs. The ones that aren't are specialty bulbs that I hope to soon replace with LEDs.
Modern CFL bulbs give off very pleasant white light. Seriously, the light is almost totally indistinguishable from that of those "daylight"-coated incandescents--unless you're doing very, very specific colour correction tasks you will not notice the difference.

The new electronic ballasts used to light them are also small enough to fit in most sockets/shades and happily bring light the moment you flip the switch.

As for the "inflated, unjustified" price, a CFL will pay for itself in energy savings in mere months. And thankfully, unlike your earlier experience, they also tend to last about 10 times as long as an incandescent.

They're still not appropriate in extreme temperature situations, nor in particularly tiny fixtures, but LEDs will soon be doing a better job than incandescents in that market segment too.

Give a good quality CFL bulb a try and get with the present.

Gloria, the guilty-until-proven innocent approach for young people is just another arbitrary, ageist way of dealing with students.

Also, Kevin, cellphone bans often occur based rates of abuse in a place that is particularly sensitive to disruption, rather than the makeup of the group involved.

Suggesting a ban in a school occurs only because the offenders are young seems to me an irrational approach. They're young because students who attend a high school usually are. It's akin to suggesting cellphones might be banned in theatres because there is a bias against people who like movies.

Unfortunately, bans in places which adults also attend would probably need action by the city itself, so they're much slower in coming. If bans are more quickly put into place in high schools, perhaps it's because school boards are slightly more efficient.

heres how school worked when i was in highschool :

here is how it should work :

you bring your cellphone. if you use it between classes or at lunch, no teacher or admin gives a shit. if you use it in class, the teacher throws you out of class. if you are repeatedly thrown out of class you fail, and it's no ones fault but your own.

highschool is supposed to prepare you for life. in this modern world, many of todays students will one day hold jobs where devices like PDA's, Blackberrys, and cell phones are daily necessities. instead of banning these things outright, we should be preparing students for these necessities of life by teaching them how to use them in a respectful and appropriate manner, and by appropriately punishing them if they use them in an inappropriate manner.