LIVORNO. In the school of Mascagni, Modigliani and Ciampi, no more cell phones. At the Niccolini Palli high school in Livorno, cell phones cannot be used in class. And not even in the rest of the school. Second Teresa Cini, head teacher of the high school, it is worth reiterating this, even now that the school year is coming to a close. And that’s what the principal did, via a notice on the electronic register noticeboard. «I reiterated the ministerial circulars, I didn’t do anything new», underlines the principal.
The explanation and the “case”
The position of those who run the institute is clear: «There is nothing different than what we have always said. The position is not mine, but it is the one shared with the entire teaching staff”, specifies the manager. But why does the ban on cell phone use appear again less than a month before the end of school? «In one class there was an episode in which some kids took cell phones, taking advantage of the time change. And one of them took a shot of a situation that I didn’t like at all – explains the manager -. Taking the liberty of using your cell phone, from the moment it is banned, is not good.” Even if they had filmed other types of situations, nothing would have changed for the school: cell phones in class are harmful to male and female students. «Unfortunately, sometimes we see students walking around with their cell phones in their hands during recess, and this isn’t good either. With us the cell phone turns off at 8 am and turns back on at 1 pm – continues Cini -. Boys and girls need to be free with their thoughts and not lose concentration.”
The rule
At Niccolini Palli the children should turn off their devices when they arrive in class. «But it goes without saying that during time changes, given that sometimes they have to change the school, teachers can be late. And the school collaborators are unable to monitor all the classrooms”, explains the principal. She’s already thinking about a new solution for next year, to better manage the use of cell phones in class. «From next year there will be separate organizers. Each pocket of this new tool will have a number, and the number will be associated with a cell phone. It’s an extra precaution, but to make it work you also need common sense”, concludes Cini.
What the students think
Niccolini students agree with the wall organizers. But they still want to be able to use their cell phones in class, for educational purposes. «The use of binders attached to the wall replaces the co-responsibility of students and teachers with prohibitionism – we read in a statement from the institute representatives -. Students are in fact able to understand when the smartphone can be used or not, depending on the activity taking place in class.” For students, prohibition is therefore not the right path, given that cell phones are now an essential part of their lives. «Prohibiting the use of smartphones even during time changes and recess appears like a desperate attempt to impose a form of “healthy” sociality that is not suited to contemporary mechanisms», continues the statement. Furthermore, high school students are keen to underline that the mechanism by which today we are often attached to our cell phones is not typical only of those who sit at the desks in class. But also of those who sit in the classroom: “Don’t think that all teachers keep their cell phones away from them in class or use them only for work reasons”, underlines the statement.
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