Strict phone bans in schools are sweeping the world. And it’s not only at the school level. Most recently, South Korea outlawed the use of smartphones during class . That means they’ve now joined France, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands and China. This is a backsliding of student rights in South Korea and around the world. Prior to this change, South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission said that phone confiscation actually violates student rights. While it’s not the most extreme violation, it leaves me asking why — what’s the point of this? Is this for some noble purpose? Viewing school as mostly signaling and the median person’s preferred alternative to teenage work , it j
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