I'm not going to say no to a ban on phone use in schools. I think we all know phones are not the biggest problem with education, truancy and a crap curriculum are the biggest problems.

But banning phone use can’t hurt, can it?

There is no upside in having phones in classrooms. Unless they’re being used for a particular lesson, they’re just a distraction. 

Think about how distracting they are to you, how tempting it is to check Facebook and Insta and your emails and watch a clip- and you’re an adult. It's so much worse for kids whose brains are still forming.

Frankly, we can’t leave it to them to self-regulate- we adults have got to do it for them.

It says a lot that most of the states in Australia are doing it already. They seem to be several steps ahead of us in trying to sort out education, so surely if they think it's necessary, we should be thinking it too.

And it also says a lot that a major UN report recommended it too, just last month.

My only reservation with this policy from the Nats is that I wouldn’t want anyone to kid themselves that this solves the education problem. It won’t. It's helpful, but our problems are bigger than this.

We have got to get all the primary school kids learning phonics again, so they can actually start learning to read.

We’ve got to make sure the Education Ministry leaves gravity in the science curriculum.

We've got to get the kids out of those giant shared classrooms, so they stop being distracted by each other.

And we’ve got to stop sending them home at the drop of a hat.

I'm looking for policies that deal with those problems, and I cannot wait to see what the parties are offering. This makes a nice start though.

LISTEN ABOVE

I'm not going to say no to a ban on phone use in schools. I think we all know phones are not the biggest problem with education, truancy and a crap curriculum are the biggest problems.
But banning phone use can’t hurt, can it? 
There is no upside in having phones in classrooms. Unless they’re being used for a particular lesson, they’re just a distraction.  
Think about how distracting they are to you, how tempting it is to check Facebook and Insta and your emails and watch a clip- and you’re an adult. It's so much worse for kids whose brains are still forming.
Frankly, we can’t leave it to them to self-regulate- we adults have got to do it for them.
It says a lot that most of the states in Australia are doing it already. They seem to be several steps ahead of us in trying to sort out education, so surely if they think it's necessary, we should be thinking it too. 
And it also says a lot that a major UN report recommended it too, just last month.
My only reservation with this policy from the Nats is that I wouldn’t want anyone to kid themselves that this solves the education problem. It won’t. It's helpful, but our problems are bigger than this.
We have got to get all the primary school kids learning phonics again, so they can actually start learning to read.
We’ve got to make sure the Education Ministry leaves gravity in the science curriculum.
We've got to get the kids out of those giant shared classrooms, so they stop being distracted by each other.
And we’ve got to stop sending them home at the drop of a hat.
I'm looking for policies that deal with those problems, and I cannot wait to see what the parties are offering. This makes a nice start though.
LISTEN ABOVE

With a straight down the middle approach, Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive on Newstalk ZB delivers the very latest news and views to New Zealanders as they wrap up their day.