Kindergarten Cell Phone Usage on the Rise...

I was leaving our elementary building today, the same building that my son attends Kindergarten, when I was called into the principal's office. It seems that my oldest son had taken one of my old cell phones out of a drawer and took it on the bus with him. As he was showing to his "older" friends, it came up that one of them might be able to fix it for him.

Two problems:

1. I didn't know he even had the phone.
2. It is not broken, just turned off!

Long story short...the phone was confiscated and taken to the office for pickup later.

As I brought up the story with my son to try to sort out the details, it occurred to me that he didn't see anything wrong with taking a cell phone to school or having it out on the bus, or even giving it to a friend to "fix." The giving it to a friend part we can just chalk up to naivety as I don't believe he is yet to have a friend borrow something without giving it back.

The other details are interesting. The cell phone is a huge part of his life. He uses my cell phone almost daily to call mom with the voice recognition and bluetooth earphone, to take pictures and to play golf. It is just a part of his life. No wonder he didn't listen to mom when she told him that she didn't think he was allowed to take it on the bus.

How ludicrous! Why couldn't he? His dad takes his everywhere!

Do your kids know how to dial your spouse? Do they know how to make a call at all?

Why not?

How can we begin to tap into the power of the technology that is actually in the young students hands every day? Anybody have any ideas?

Why does the educational system still see problems with kids talking on cell phones in between classes? Isn't that when all of the teachers make their personal calls? Why should they be shut off from many of their friends all day long because their schedules don't match.

Let's find some answers...