Question your policies: we must address behavior and not technology. (speaking out).

Parent: Are you going to wear your new hat today?

Child: No, because fifth graders are not allowed to wear hats to school

Parent: Why can't fifth graders wear hats?

School administrator: Because sixth graders can't wear hats

Parent: "Why can't sixth graders wear hats?"

School administrator: Gangs!

Parent: Do we have gang problems?

School administrator: No, because we don't let sixth graders wear hats.

The preceding dialogue (experienced by my own family) typifies the wacky rule-making increasingly found in American schools. Back-to-school time often coincides with the arbitrary banning of toys, apparel and assorted knick-knacks from our classrooms and playgrounds. It seems as if instinct takes over whenever administrators encounter something kids care about. The reflexive impulse is to forbid these objects from the educational environment. There are several reasons for taking a deep breath and exercising caution before enforcing the next pog embargo. We risk alienating children from school and missing potential curriculum connections.

As the world becomes more complex, violent and distinct from the life of the school, educators should look for opportunities to establish closer relationships with their students. Arbitrarily banning objects embraced by children needlessly erects barriers between teachers and students, school and the real world. Baseball cards may be used to explore powerful ideas in probability, statistics, graphing, sorting and geography. Pogs and Pokemon cards are excellent manipulatives for sorting and pattern recognition. Positive relationships with caring adults will outlast the latest fad.

Laptops, programmable toys and handheld devices are becoming more affordable, powerful and therefore ubiquitous. Disallowing such devices at school will impoverish the learning environment. While Mr. Dette's fondness for nostalgia would earn us extra credit for using a slide rule in his physical science class, he never punished us for using a calculator.

This year schools from coast-to-coast are banning Palms and similar handheld computers. An article in Wired quotes Alan Warhaftig, a coordinator of the nonprofit organization Learning in the Real World (an organization critical of digital technology in education).

"I know when I'm in a faculty meeting that is boring me to tears, I will read The New York Times on AvantGo and look like I'm [concentrating] on the meeting," said Warhaftig. I say, "Duh?" Imagine if kids could vote with their feet. Would classrooms begin to be more reflective of their needs?

SOME TECHNOLOGIES HELP SAFETY Cell phones are perhaps the most often banned legal devices in American schools. Aside from the obvious convenience they afford, cellular phones have become life-saving tools. In both Columbine and the terrible terrorist strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, people used cell phones to call for help or offer comfort for family members. My childrens' high school has unilaterally banned cell phones from the campus as have many schools across the country.

I adamantly believe that a school has no right whatsoever to jeopardize the safety of my daughter who is forced to wander a dark locked campus at 10:30 p.m. after drama practice. The payphones and vending machines are often more secure than the children. As a parent, it is I who should have the right to locate my child and have her call for help in case of an emergency.

Reducing classroom distractions is often cited as the rationale for this rule, but this is nonsense. If you walk into Carnegie Hall or an airplane, a polite adult asks that you please turn off your phone for the comfort or safety of those around you. Why can't teachers do the same?

If a student disrupts the learning environment then that action should be punished in the same way we address spitballs or talking in class. It is irrational to have different rules for infractions involving electronic devices. We must address behavior, not technology. This approach will make our schools more caring, relevant, productive and secure. Our kids deserve nothing less.

Gary Stager, [e-mail], is editor-at-large and an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University.