a large group of students at different grade levels, learning abilities, and no subject matter that is taught.
i just can not get on board with the elitist opinion that only the A students can listen to music in study hall.
3dee - i admire your respect for education - and i too once shared alot of your same ideas...
until i became a teacher.
classroom management is the hardest part of being an educator, and some students are easier to manage if you play to their strengths. some children are musicians. let them study and appreciate music.
a child with A.D.D. for example - might find music in study hall to be a good tool to help focus.
i was labelled A.D.D. - and i carried hardback art books with me to every class.
my teachers would teach, and when they lectured i listened and drew in my book. by drawing my mind remained focused. some teachers would ask me not to draw while they taught and i respected that, but most teachers realized by the A's i made that i was actually listening - and listening well.
every child is different.
i guess the moral is...
how does a teacher in study hall make sure students are working? you have a large group of kids doing different things.
they cant...well...they COULD - if the class was no more than 15 students and their normal teachers corresponded regularly with the study hall teacher...
they can not feasibly do this...but they can make sure that the study hall remains quiet so students who are motivated can work in silence (or to the beat of the music of their choice via their ipods )
just some thoughts.
the core of what i was getting at with the advancement of education, again, is along the same lines as the educational philosophy of john dewey...
take down the four walls of the classroom - break free of the chains of an industrial age education, and let children explore the world in constructive ways.
that said...i do not see how an ipod in study hall would defy or hinder any of those things.