Rules have been around since before humans began living in groups, but in this sense, the rules were “social etiquette” norms to help facilitate cooperation between humans to achieve the common goal of survival. Things like sharing the fruit of the hunt between the hunters and not taking another person’s possessions were necessary for the survival of humans. In today’s society, rules, or laws, are put into place by governments to keep its people safe, either from themselves or other people, but often some rules come along that seem completely asinine and may even do more harm than good, which is why the school and its staff should ascertain that a rule is either necessary for safety or productivity before they implement them in the classrooms.

 As students settle back into their classrooms at BHS, students may take note of their teachers’ phone policies, which may either be non-existent, lenient, moderate or severe. While many teachers rely on the honesty of their students to stay off their phones during class by putting them away, there are some who instruct their students to put their phones into cubbies at the beginning of class, which can be problematic. It is no secret that teenagers do not react well to being told what to do by most figures of authority, especially when it concerns their precious cellphones. So, when they are forced to put their phones into a cubby or shoe organizer labeled as theirs, some students do not bother, which causes a distraction at the beginning of each class as the teacher tries to figure out who did not put their phone away. There are also instances where cellphones act as a security blanket to students, who no longer feel safe or secure when this is taken from them. This results in those students being distracted for the rest of the class period and paying more attention to their phone than their teacher. Some students go as far as bringing old iPhones from home to put in place of their phones, even calculator cases, and for people who want to begin class so they can learn and do their homework, these smart-aleck antics are tremendously frustrating. Because of young revolutionaries who do not comply with the cellphone policies, the requirement of putting phones in a cubby hinders classroom learning for everyone. This is an example of one of the ridiculous rules that contributes to the rigidity of the American school system, which leads to the stereotypically low quality.

While the problem of taking time away from the class is only within the first 5 to 10 minutes of the period, the students who were going to be distracted by their phones during class will find other ways to keep their minds off of the learning. The students who planned on participating in class have then lost more than enough time to learn.

Clearly, policies on cellphones in school create more distractions than they do to help the streamline of learning, therefore allowing students to be responsible for their own phones will lead to less distractions for those who do not have problems with checking their phones.