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Podgajski commented on What happens when a school bans smartphones? A complete transformation theguardian.com/lifeandst... · Posted by u/robaato
Google says enrollment was 78 students nine years ago, let's guess it's around 100 now; 25 kids per grade, managing those cell phones is a tractable problem compared to a school with 1000 kids.
And they cost $300 apiece! You have teachers buying just regular school supplies out of their own pocket in public schools.
You can still buy a super basic Nokia phone that pretty much only does that, and it lasts like a month of battery - I own one, it's great to carry around in places where you might not want to risk your super expensive smartphone.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nokia-1-77-Inch-Feature-Phone-Singl...
I'd happily give this to my own child so they can reach me in emergencies, but there is no risk of them going on TikTok or anything else. It's "just" a phone.
Then, why didn’t that school Just give them those Nokia phones?
Because this is an advertising puff piece for the light phone. I’m going to guarantee you that someone in that company has connections to that school.
By the time you build a basic phone, adding these features only costs a few cents more, so they include them to increase market share.
These days phones are generally built from a SoC which already includes more capabilities than just calls and text, and run an operating system which already supports those capabilities.
If you don’t want certain features they can be turned off (check how locked down you can make an iPhone via parental controls, for instance) but it’s hard to avoid paying for them in some way.
You’re not including the fact that they need some sort of wonky website for you to upload photos and add Podcasts. So it’s not just the phone they’re building but the whole infrastructure behind it.
And if what you said is true, then why give these kids light phones in the first place. I’m almost wondering if someone from the light phone company has some connection with that school.
> I do wonder what percentage of Apple stock is owned by pension funds and the like, i.e. The Regular Person, once you unwind the levels of indirection (mutual funds, etc). It is surely a double digit percentage, but high, low? No idea.
Pretty high. The S&P 500 has ~7% apple stock which means many peoples retirement accounts have several percentage points of apple stock.
So Apple takes 30% of your money from one hand and gives you back 3% with the other?
Those light phones are interesting products and I thought about trying one at one point but seen some mixed reviews.
Why can’t someone just make a phone. I don’t need a phone that plays music or can listen to podcast. I just need a phone that can make calls and make texts. I think their problem is they wanted this phone to still be like a smart phone.
I mean, I agree that cell phones can cause interruptions in schools, but doing this at a place like Buxton compared to some of the public schools I’ve taught in, well, that’s a whole different story.
“Buxton School is a private, coeducational, college preparatory, boarding and day school for grades 9–12 located in Williamstown, Massachusetts.“
I mean, it’s one thing to take away a kid, cell phone and offer them nothing and then another thing to take away their cell phone and offer them
“When the weather is nice, the Buxton boarding school moves lunch outside. Students, faculty and guests grab their food from the kitchen, and eat together under a white tent that overlooks western Massachusetts’ Berkshire mountains.”
One of the Nobel Prize winners ( there were 3 I think) for the discovery of AIDS virus, Luc Montagnier I think believed that even conventional AIDS was completely due to nutritional deficiencies. He ended up being a heretic in scientific circles
When I tell people aids can be caused by more than HIV they literally think I’m a kook. Then I have to show them things like this.