[Ser William]

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Before cellphones, kids had other distractions, like pot, drawing pictures of the gym teacher with a [censored] in his ear, and even good old fashioned daydreaming.

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This is a pretty good point. The only difference being that phones ringing / incoming text messages buzzing / people answering their phones is a lot more distracting to the REST of the classroom than idle daydreaming and picture drawing. Personally I could care less what the cell phone owner him/herself does, because they'll find other ways to mess around in class and generally be a nuisance. It is the other kids in the class actually trying to learn that I'd be concerned for.