Reply #29: Necessary. [View All]

[LWolf]

At my place of employment, (school), we have 30 classrooms or so and one land line going out for all of us to share. It's rare you can pick up the phone and actually get a dial tone. Our families are not allowed to call in and leave messages unless they are critical emergencies. If you are still in your classroom working after the office staff goes home, no one is answering the school phone. So teachers keep cell phones so that they can be accessible to their families while they are at work. Ten years ago, I was in a staff meeting before school when a family member called the office to contact me. The office staff refused to interrupt the meeting to bring me to the phone, even after being told that it was an emergency. I didn't get the message until after the meeting. My ex-husband, father of my boys, had been in an accident and was in critical condition. I was supposed to pass the news on to my boys.

I also use the phone for work-related things; if a student is having a problem, has had some opportunities to resolve it and has chosen not to, I simply take the phone off of my belt, punch in the numbers, say to the parent, "Johnny is having trouble today with _______. Please talk to him." And hand Johnny the phone. Dead silence rules the room.

I used it last week when I had my class out on the field for PE; we were a long way away from the office or the nearest building. Two boys from the local jr high were loitering, one with a wooden chair leg that he used to pound on the fence poles while screaming obscenities. A quick call to the office, and our VP came racing out in the electric cart to evict them.

I carry it for emergency purposes, although the only emergencies I've ever had were in spots where I don't get a signal.

I don't chat on it for fun. I leave it on "discreet" so that no one around me hears it ring, and my family knows not to call the number during business hours unless it is a critical emergency. If not, leave a voice mail message and I'll check it after school, meeting, or whatever. It's not a social tool, and they are the only ones with the number. I do find listening to other people's phones in restaurants, movies, meetings, etc. to be irritating. The discreet function is an easy way to be polite.