Have you ever had any problems at your school you wish you could fix or change?  Recently I’ve noticed some problematic behavior among students, so I asked Ines Macias who is in 7th grade about her thoughts on phone usage. 

Overall, I believe these issues are crucial to improving the school experience, especially for new students. Everyone needs to show respect and responsibility in their behavior. One problem I had been seeing lately was poor behavior so I asked Ines where or when she thinks you should have your phone. Her response was: “I think phones should only be allowed at lunch because like you have to pay attention and pay attention to the teacher and respect her because she is taking the time to teach you.” 

I really agree with that statement including when students don’t listen and they just play games or listen to music. I also wondered what she thought about the hallways since they were always crowded with people either not moving or running around. When I asked her she had an immediate answer she responded, “People are always talking to their friends and just don’t know how to walk or are just on their phones.” 

When she answered that question I thought about the first question when I had asked about phones, then I wondered are phones just the problem? I mean I knew that the principles and staff thought that students were responsible enough to have our phones but is that a reality? I mean, I know it may just be a phone but could it be too distracting to where kids have no self-control or patience? 

I began to wonder if Ines thought that kids at lunch were also a problem when I had asked she was talking about actually eating and cleaning up your trash. I specifically remembered that she said, “Some kids don’t clean up their food wrappers and it can invade the food area and no one wants to touch it” I then remember that many kids were angered by the fact that they couldn’t use the vending machine during lunch. I had honestly thought it would be smart to keep it open pretty much 24/7 since it would probably make some good money. Ines had a similar point of how it would be positive instead of negative. She stated, “ Ines Macias Perez: Yeah because some kids sometimes forget their lunch at home or they just don’t want to ask their friends for something.” Honestly, I think that her reasoning made sense since everything was either a positive or a negative.

     I believe that understanding the significance of this can enhance your school experience, particularly if you are new. Additionally, it is important because it relates to the concept of respect, which is something we should all strive to improve upon.