New Zealand leader plans to ban cell phone use in schools and end tobacco controls in first 100 days

I grew up in a strict school environment where phones weren't allowed. I support the banning of mobile phone use in schools, but they should be ready to have landline phones ready for parents to call to. On the tobacco part, how I wish there would be a country that would ban it completely out of health concerns.

He is trying to undo all the damage Jacinda Ahern managed to inflict on the economy and country at large.

He has also walked back his previous pledge to expel the Russian Ambassador. Hopefully he is having a bout of common sense with regards to his previous juvenile name calling. He needs to get on the phone to Orban, Trump, Wilders, Fico and future leader of Canada Poilievre to discuss a sensible policy grounded in reality in this department.

JJEToday 04:32 pm JST

You know your coalition is pretty sad when Slovakia is a major player in it.

Why the heck can't we get this kind of common sense elsewhere?

Sorry I meant the cell phone thing. Cigarettes would have been better banned.

The central bank change is a good one.

New Zealand was the original leader in inflation targeting, and getting back to that makes sense.

Two education initiatives — one requiring schools to teach an hour of reading, writing and math each day, and another banning cellphone use

Banning cellphone use?

That’s too draconian for me. Let the schools make their own rules.

JJE

He needs to get on the phone to Orban, Trump, Wilders, Fico and future leader of Canada Poilievre to discuss a sensible policy grounded in reality in this department.

Why would he do that? He's not a right wing kook like those guys.

requiring schools to teach an hour of reading, writing and math each day,

This is really just populist signalling. It implies that schools aren't teaching these things and that untargeted, heavy-handed diktats will fix it.

Simplistic answers for simplistic minds.

There's no reason for a child to have a mobile phone in school. They are just distractions. They may also be distractions for adults, IDK.

For thousands of years, humans didn't have mobile phones. It isn't the end of the world to be without them for a school day. Everyone there will learn to plan ahead, which is something humans have done since before we started farming. It is a basic skill to have.

theFu

Simplistic answers for simplistic minds.

There's no reason for a child to have a mobile phone in school. They are just distractions. They may also be distractions for adults, IDK.

Schools already have rules about mobile phones and their use at schools. They are not allowed to be used in classrooms. So this is legislation purporting to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

Also, banning mobile phones altogether isn't good either. Our daughter has a mobile phone and uses it to let us know if she will be home early for some reason or if she forgot something that she needs and my wife can drop off.