If it’s not one thing, it’s more than likely another. I’ve already buckled down and rode out the storm of angry, misguided adolescents from a previous article saying that cell phones really aren’t necessary in school. However, not to be outdone by anyone, including  myself, a more recent topic has come up that might even rival the silliness of the “right” to a cell phone in school, namely the insistence that students have a right and need for iPods and MP3 players in school.

First off, I think there has been some kind of crucial miscommunication between students and the rest of the world. You see, school is a form of public education, not public entertainment. If you want public entertainment, watch the guy swallowing swords on the street corner or juggling chainsaws (or Fluvanna’s equivalent, which is people taking the traffic circle at 30 mph). Believe it or not, students are not actually corralled into a place of higher learning to socialize and play with their friends for eight hours. The argument that school is “boring” and “not fun” is pointless — this is just part of life. When you’re in the office doing work for a boss, odds are that the boss doesn’t care if you’re having fun. There is a time for fun, and a time for work.

This alone has led to an issue now that has been driving a wedge between students and teachers in the school: the lack of a work ethic. Students come to school under the impression that they must be entertained and act as if they are being subjected to some sort of cruel and unusual punishment for being expected to follow the rules and get work done. It’s unfortunate because when things get heated like this, it’s hard for the teacher to come out on top because of how ridiculous students get. Just look at the dress code; some students have such a hard time following the rules that they are willing to cause heated confrontations with the teachers over them, and the policy for discipline had to change. From what I’ve seen, I’d be willing to be it was just to deal with the students inability to not only follow the rules, but act with decency and decorum about it.

Back to music. The most common problem that arises from music players specifically is in the classroom. Students will turn on their music players and plug in headphones to tune people out, and since blaring music in your ears doesn’t block out every voice except the teacher’s, listening to music isn’t a good idea when the teacher is, get this, teaching. The common rebuttal to this is that students aren’t actually doing it – a statement that is objectively false on its own – but are using it to concentrate while working. This, however, isn’t exactly the best reasoning behind it either.

“A proper study skill is for students to prepare themselves for tests in their testing environment. Since they may not listen to music during testing, they should not have music during class,” says Darren McCauley, a teacher of not only Economics and Personal Finance, but Business and Marketing as well, so clearly he is someone with experience in the working environment.

But students have a record of not listening to teachers on this matter, so I went and cited a professional’s opinion as well. According to studies conducted by Dr. Nick Perham, a lecturer at the School of Health Sciences at the University of Wales Institute, researchers found that “Listening to liked or disliked music was exactly the same, and both were worse than the quiet control condition… Both impaired performance on serial-recall tasks.” The study goes on to say that listening to music before working is beneficial, but the act of listening during performance is more detrimental than helpful.

There are several FCHS teachers who follow a similar policy regarding music players, and this leads directly into another frustrating issue: labeling some teachers “unpopular.” These are teachers who are wrongfully disliked by students and have earned their “bad rep” among the high schoolers because they enforce rules, have reasonable standards, and actually hold their students to them. Now I don’t know about everyone else, but following the rules and demanding that students actually do the work assigned to them doesn’t seem groundbreaking. Public schooling is mandatory, for goodness sake, so what makes these students think that the work they do isn’t?

That is just side effect, however, to the bigger issue that crops up from cell phones and music players. They don’t serve a purpose in the classroom, and while the argument could be made they have no negative effect on the time in hallways and at lunch, are they necessary? Is it possible for students to walk from one class to another, use the restroom and retrieve items from their locker without the constant source of entertainment from music? The simple answer is no, they’re not needed and life would go on, perhaps with a higher quality of excellence, without them. The problem lies with stubborn students insisting they “need” them and they have some “right” to them.

This topic doesn’t even have as many counter arguments as cell phones, covered in another article of mine, because whether or not students want to admit it, I think it’s rather clear cut they’re irrelevant. Music players really aren’t needed in schools, and it’s a privilege to have them, not a right. That being said, given how many students break and disrespect the rules banning the devices from classrooms, I think it would be a better idea just to face the music and leave the beats at home and out of the learning process.