School Uniform To Block Cell Phone Emissions 153
Foehg writes "ForeignPolicy.com reports, 'A Belarusian textile company has developed a special school uniform that protects kids from electromagnetic radiation emanating from their cellphones. The uniform features a dedicated pocket that can store the phone and make it safe for those who wear it.'" Now someone has to create an oven mitt that can protect you from the harmful radiation given off by your microwave oven.
I think this could be potentially good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Great! (Score:3, Insightful)
This is great news for all of those students going to schools that permit them to carry cell phones.
Wait, what?
WTH? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Great! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I think this could be potentially good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Great! (Score:5, Insightful)
No it's not. It's never about protecting the children.
Re:Or you could... (Score:1, Insightful)
How long since you been in a school? Policing such policies is a waste of time and effort. If kids really want to bring in cell phones, they will. Something built into uniforms would allow for policing that doesn't requires effort. Of course, this won't stop the cell phones in kid's backpack unless the backpack is part of the uniform.
Cellphones are officially safe though (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Great! (Score:3, Insightful)
The most effective way of reducing electromagnetic radiation from cellphones is to turn them off. The second most effective method is to install a femtocell in each classroom, allowing the cellphones to reduce the signal strength to almost nothing. A braindead method is to add lots of material which blocks cellphone transmissions, causing all cellphones to increase the output signal strength.
WOW (Score:2, Insightful)
This is just another pointless protect our Children BS, why not just suggest every parents should bubble wrap their children before they leave the house
I don't know why that sounds so odd to you (Score:1, Insightful)
I see nothing odd in that. I got my first Nokia cellphone when I was on 5th grade, I think. I'm not sure how long elementary school takes in USA but here in Finland it is 9 years and you finish it when you are 15 or 16 years old (assuming you don't have to redo any year or anything like that). Most Finns have already also given up land lines as everyone in the family has cellphone. (Official cell phone penetration rate is apparently at 128% as there are more phones than people. For comparison, the rate for USA is 86% linky [itu.int])
So a lot of kids at elementary school have cellphones. At that point question is "Should they be allowed in school or not" and thus "Is there any benefit from that?". The answer is, yes there is. At least I remember numerous times that I didn't come home directly from school but instead went to a friend for a while. It was good for me to have my phone with me and I think that my mother was happy knowing that she could contact me if necessary. Of course I used the phone myself, too. Texted friends if they have gotten off the school yet, etc. etc... Once called an ambulance after school when I saw an accident. So the next question is "Is there any harm from allowing them in schools" and I don't believe there is. There was a rule "Don't let it ring during a lesson or a teacher will take it and your parents will have to come and ask it back.". Some teachers were very strict about that, others were not. But practically everyone had a phone and I don't think I heard a phone ring during a lesson more than ten times or so in total. It was never a problem of any sort, not for teachers and not for students.
A lot of posters have implied that not only would cell phones be allowed in schools but it would be a very odd idea to allow them. Is there any logical reasoning behind this?
Re:I don't know why that sounds so odd to you (Score:3, Insightful)
So a lot of kids at elementary school have cellphones. At that point question is "Should they be allowed in school or not" and thus "Is there any benefit from that?". The answer is, yes there is.
Should they be allowed in schools is one question, should they be allowed in class is another. The answer to the first one is yes, because it's obviously beneficial for parents and children to be able to communicate. The answer to the latter is no, because in general they serve no educational purpose, and a child who needs to call their parent can either wait until after class or ask the teacher's permission.
I think a lot of people automatically think "in class" when they hear "in school".
It was never a problem of any sort, not for teachers and not for students.
Sadly it's quite a problem over here, largely because of the ongoing war between students and their parents trying to strip all authority from school staff, and school staff trying to acquire absolute power in blanket fashion so they can claim to be fair and always thinking of the children.
E.g. if a student has a phone in class, and won't stop using it and disrupting class, and won't voluntarily hand it over to the teacher, the teacher has very few options as to what to do that won't get them in deep shit with the parents. Ergo, they try to get a universal ban on having phones in school, or blocking the phones so they're useless, and thus never have to confront an individual student over it.
It's kinda messed up.