{"id":104320,"date":"2024-12-14T16:53:38","date_gmt":"2024-12-14T16:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/im-a-teacher-not-a-law-enforcement-officer-statement\/"},"modified":"2024-12-14T16:53:40","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T16:53:40","slug":"im-a-teacher-not-a-law-enforcement-officer-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/im-a-teacher-not-a-law-enforcement-officer-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m a teacher, not a law enforcement officer – Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

First day of school at upper secondary school, school year 24\/25. The headmaster tells all the pupils about the new rules of order: Mobile phones must not be used in class unless the subject teacher has said so. If mobile phones are found, the subject teacher must confiscate it, deliver it to reception, and the student can collect it at the end of the day. This applies to all pupils, classes, teachers \u2013 the whole school, the whole county. Good, I think. There are clear, fair guidelines here. Easy to deal with for both teacher and student. The rules do not only apply to telephones. They apply to all electronic equipment, laptop and airpods included – the use of all this must be teacher-controlled. It starts\u2026 alright. No major student protests. But you have to say it at the beginning of each class. After each break. Remember to put away your mobile phone. It should be in the bag. “Then we start again. Remember to put your mobile away.\u201d At least a quarter of the students sit with their noses down at the screen and do not realize that class has started again. It starts to slip out. Knowing that the mobile phone will be in the bag, many leave it on the desk. Well within reach. Or in your pocket, so you can tell if it vibrates. “I have to charge mine,” says a student, and plugs in and puts the mobile on the windowsill nearby. Sigh. Should I take the fight? Again? Had it yesterday too. Insist that no, the mobile phone must go away completely, it must stay in the bag? I can’t stand it. I’m a teacher, not a law enforcement officer. We have subject matter to get through, after all that is my job. A little towards the end of the hour, I look out over the herd again. Many of the mobile phones have magically come out of the bag and are lying on the desk. In the window sill is a charging cable that does not charge anything, while the student sits with both hands in his lap and stares down at his crotch. Smiles a little now and then. “No one sits and stares at their crotch and laughs,” we teachers often joke. If they sit like that, they look at their mobile and think it’s impossible to detect. Memes are more fun than teaching, and the student is bored. It is deadly to be bored. I keep looking around. Many students sit in a similar way. Some don’t even bother trying to hide it. Even more people have AirPods in their ears. Some have both in; some have only one, in the ear that faces away from me. As if that would help, that white color is almost luminescent. Some students have their laptop on their desk, they need it to be able to take notes and such. In the back row are five boys staring intently at their PC screens, all with at least one Airpod in their ear. In the reflection in the back window, I see that they are either watching Netflix or playing some game. \u201cCome on guys. Quit Netflix, airpods out. We have an appointment here.\u201d Reluctantly, they take out their airpods, some leave one behind. Hah, we tricked the teacher there, they might think. The hour goes on. A little later, I see that several of the same people are back with Netflix on the laptop. I’m totally exhausted. I can’t stand it. It’s no use. A little later in the school year, a number of classes have gathered at the cultural center to see a performance about being young and addicted to drugs. We are told that mobile phones should not be brought forward, it is about respect for those who are performing. We teachers are asked to spread out around the room, sit among the students and keep an eye on them. Five minutes into the performance, I see that the girl just beyond me is sitting with her nose in her mobile phone. I poke her on the shoulder and signal for her to put it away. She apologizes, and the phone disappears. A few minutes later I look away again. The mobile is up again, and so is the one with the friend over there. What are they doing that is so important? I’m looking for. The girl checks snap. Scroll down to update, see if anything new has arrived. Switch to Instagram. Updating. With the update, some new memes appear on the front page. The two sit like this for the rest of the hour, the show about drug addiction lasts. Completely engrossed. Completely indifferent to the world around. This is my everyday life as a teacher in the upper secondary school. Often I feel like I’m teaching to an empty room. Both laptops, airpods and mobiles appear, despite clear guidelines. The students don’t care. Netflix, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram will open. The students disappear into another world, the grade point average drops, the ability to concentrate disappears, so does endurance and discipline. Many underperform academically, some fail. “Recommendations” and “guidelines” on mobile use and digital aids are insufficient. In the classroom I face a tsunami of apathy, indifference and active self-distraction from mobiles and laptops. As a teacher, I often feel powerless and discouraged. What am I doing here? What is the purpose of Norwegian school? There seems to be a great distance between the adopted ideals and the reality in the classroom. I was not a model student when I went to school myself. Fortunately, I didn’t have a PC with internet access on the desk in front of me – and not a smartphone in my pocket either. Based on my experience, Norwegian school students do not need training in using PCs and smartphones correctly – they urgently need help to learn how to function without them at all. The urge to “just check something” and to zone out when you’re bored watching TikTok or similar, whether on a laptop or mobile, is a constant drag on learning. The new rules have not worked as intended, and I see few real solutions other than having a completely mobile-free high school. Send us your opinion Want to write? Feel free to contact us at news Ytring with your post. The guidelines can be found here. Published 14.12.2024, at 14.27
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First day of school at upper secondary school, school year 24\/25. The headmaster tells all the pupils about the new rules of order: Mobile phones must not be used in class unless the subject teacher has said so. If mobile phones are found, the subject teacher must confiscate it, deliver it to reception, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23161,375,1031,3136,1396],"class_list":["post-104320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-enforcement","tag-law","tag-officer","tag-statement","tag-teacher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}