Tabatha Southey: Ontario’s cellphone ban is the 'Buck-a-Beer' of education policy. All catchphrase. No cattle.
Beginning this fall, Ontario students will no longer be able to bring their cellphones into classrooms. Scratch that, students everywhere will always be able to bring their cellphones into classrooms. Students are stealthy. You’d think Premier Doug Ford of all people would remember that.
Doug Ford, it seems, is a much bigger fan of public consultation when the public isn’t rejecting his plan to make Ontario’s sex-ed curriculum more palatable to any time-travelling Victorians touring the province. It’s safe to say there will be no concern that this cellphone question was “flooded” by “certain groups.”
No, Ontario’s cellphone consensus seems to be as solid as it is rare, precious and powerful, and I’m almost surprised the Ford government pulled it out of their hat to let us feast our eyes upon it now. To what to do we owe the honour? No, no, no! Not those children, not the ones the Minister of Social Services assures us only need more screen time. Stop looking at them, and really, stop protesting on their behalf. Look instead upon the entirely noble and certainly attention-getting creature that is the Ontario-wide School Cellphone Ban!
A cellphone ban is of course part of this. It’s not only that the move is retro, it’s that—while the issue of cellphone use in class is real—the Ontario Conservatives are again on brand here, offering a simple pseudo-solution to a complex problem. This device ban is the “Buck a Beer,” the “#ClearTheWaitlist,” the, dare I say, “Cut the Waist” of education policy. All catchphrase. No cattle.
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