On August 8, NPR's All Things Considered featured a story about the new edition of Odd Girl Out, the 2002 book about bullying among girls. This new edition has been updated for digital media. In the interview, Rachael Simmons makes the pint that social media and cell phones are deeply (very deeply) embedded in girls' conceptions of themselves. She makes the point that one reason for this is that girls have not yet developed good communication skills.
Simmons has several bits of advice for parents, the one I most appreciate, and that I think educators should adopt is a cell phone parking area in the home (classroom). This is a public place where all cell phones (yup, parents' and teachers' phones too!) during meals (tests) and other cell-phone free activities.
(By the way, if you go to buy the book on one of the online retailers, make sure to get the 2011 edition!)
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