One Our school is faced with an identity crisis which came to a head at convocation. We’re trapped between two extremes- we want to be the most traditional, and also the most innovative.
The past few years at Hill have seen a swing in the cutting edge direction- Everyone has iPads! Digital sign in / sign out! Email is an essential tool!
This trend came to a screeching halt this summer, as the iPad program was wiped, and convocation launched a counter narrative that painted the dangers of cellphone use.
It’s become apparent that Hill students need the internet to navigate day-to-day challenges.
Between Canvas, SISO, and Today on the Hill, we’re constantly being bombarded with reminders, schedule changes, and assignments.
To not have a phone, let alone a laptop or iPad, is to be unable to function on Hill’s campus.
Yes, there is the option to use REACH on your laptop, but let’s face reality, who really does that? When check in is in two minutes and you’re running late, what are you going to do? Drag your laptop with you, boot up, and go through the lengthy log in process?
Phones are an essential tool for Hill Students.
This isn’t to say that I disagree with Mr. Lehman- in fact I wholeheartedly agree with most of what he said at convocation.
I think phones are a problem. They’re vapid time killers that are easy to look at. What’s hard is having the courage to strike up a conversation with a person you’ve never met, read a book for fun, or just be alone with your thoughts.
The problem is that Hill has been heading in one direction for years, only to double back and reverse.
It’s somewhat inevitable that phones are the future. If the Hill school’s mission is to educate young men and women for the future, we need to adapt to it.
When we’re in college, we won’t have a wi-fi shut off at 11:00 p.m. Instead, we as students will have to muster the will to overcome temptation.
We have to bring it upon ourselves to put the devices away.
Having rules that dictate when and where we can use our phones only serve as a negative incentive.
When we graduate from Hill, what’s to stop us from going right back to using our phones wherever we are?
Hill students have to be the driving force to decide the culture we want on campus.
We have to be the ones to decide what our culture will be. If we want one with a constant digital presence, so be it. I think it would be the wrong choice, but it’s the choice that students make.
I’d like to end this by saying one thing- no one on this campus should take this personally.
Often times, when articles are published in the newspaper criticizing school policy, members of our community find it be an affront to them and their works.
I’m not intending to discredit the work of any faculty members, but instead to show them where students are coming from.
We’re confused. And right now, we don’t know what our role is- should we adhere to the rules of an older age, or should we be pushing the rules, finding new horizons, and breaking down established norms?
As F. Scott Fitzgerald once said,“Can’t repeat the past? Why of course of you can.”
If we want to cling to our futuristic identity, there’s no going back.