I don’t like the word prohibit. It has in itself the meaning of an imposition, rigid, unbreakable, decided from above, perhaps misunderstood. And we know that prohibition has never been a good option, it has unleashed crime, fraud, the unstoppable mania to break every rule, risking a lot, even life. Young people are the first to want to break every prohibition, to mock the rules, in order to grow up in turn, to acquire personality or more simply, as neuroscience tells us today, because the prefrontal cortexpredisposed to the faculty/virtue of caution. It would therefore seem useless to impose prohibitions on those who cannot understand them and will do anything to transgress them. We experience this tragically with the drugswith theearly alcoholismwith a no limit pushed to the contempt of any danger. We know well that only theeducationpatient, manages to dig drop by drop into the stone of consciences. And only a educator credible, fascinating and even convincing.
The Minister of Education has issued a circular which they prohibit entry into the classroomup to lower secondary school (the third year of middle school in short) with the cell phone. Is he right? Certainly yes. Will the measure be necessary? Almost certainly not. Is he equally right to require this compliance? Certainly.
The cell phone in the hands of a child, during the hours in which he is called, for his own good, to listen, learn, compare, enter into relationships with teachers and classmates, is harmful. The cell phone imposes constant parental control and this is not a good thing. There are specific spaces for the school-family alliance and having apprehensive mothers who breathe down your neck non-stop does not facilitate autonomy. The cell phone with too many fake friends prevents you from looking for the real ones by your side. It deludes you into thinking you’re grasping the necessary knowledge for the homework in classthe questions and distills superficial, easy, often distorted information. The cell phone is a slap in the face teachers and professors who, underpaid, in stuffy classrooms, spend half their day explaining and enhancing your personality, enriching your future. It is depressing to address an audience bent over their smartphones, stunned by videos and deciphering messages. A daily fasting of a few hours can only benefit the educational relationship. That children get bored, sometimes, is a good thing. Looking out the window reveals recesses of the heart and questions arise. It is foolish to claim freedom: freedom is earned, but above all freedom is not doing what you want, but following the good for you. And that tool, very useful or dangerous, indispensable and invasive, fun and distracting, must be learned to use and dosed. Ban it perhaps it will be a vain attempt. But the etymology of the verb pro-habere It means “keep away”. Let’s keep it away from our children and grandchildren for a while, they will be helped to understand that it is not an extra arm, nor a substitute for their brain.