Imagine a student popping in wireless earbuds as their teacher is in the middle of a lecture. Their hair covers their ears, so this movement goes undetected. The rap music they’re playing doesn’t leak from the technology because it’s now more advanced.
The fact they’re listening to “DUCKWORTH” by Kendrick Lamar while the class is otherwise silent is unknown.
A little while later, they hear a faint voice telling them, “Take your headphones out.” The student had accidentally exposed their ears while fixing their hair.
This one sentence has been vocalized by almost every teacher at Baruch College Campus High School as using headphones in class has become common.
Some students think using headphones during class helps them focus. Junior Pietro Barricelli said “listening to music helps me lock in during independent work time. I also sometimes just keep them on for style, so it’s a little annoying when teachers tell me to take them off during class time, even if I’m not listening to anything.”
The topic of being able to listen to music in class has been an ongoing issue in many schools around the country ever since Apple AirPods were introduced. Sometimes, teachers can’t see them in students’ ears because they are so small. These bluetooth earbuds allow students to listen to music and some have a noise-cancellation feature which, according to some students, helps them focus.
“When you have headphones on, it makes people around you feel like you’re not really listening to them,” said English teacher Rita Ross. Additionally, junior Karamoko Kaba said, “Students wearing headphones in the classroom isn’t beneficial because they are blocking out valuable information that the teacher is giving them.”
While this may be true, students sometimes forget they have headphones on in the first place, and in some instances, they’re not even listening to anything.
“I sometimes completely forget that I have headphones on in the first place. So it’s not fair to ban them for students when I’m guilty as well,” said math teacher Simon Lu.
English teacher Carolyn Castagna thinks listening to music can be beneficial as long as it happens at an appropriate time.
“I’ve seen students use headphones during independent work time and for some students, it actually helps them focus more on their reading and writing,” said Castagna. “I think as long as they are not using them during a lesson, or a time when they need to engage with others, then they should be fine.”
