To whomever it may concern representing the Jordan School District,

    Recently, the decision was made for the website “www.coolmathgames.com to be blocked from all devices connected to district Wi-Fi. We, the students of Jordan School District, widely regard this as a very bad decision. Coolmath Games is a staple of high school life because it provides entertainment, fills up unused class time, and promotes problem-solving skills in students at no cost to the district.

    Imagine you’re in high school today and envision the following scenario: You’ve been given a group assignment to put together a research report on the author Cormac McCarthy, and his notable works, including “No Country for Old Men” and “The Road”. You spent a week reading these two books and, like with all group projects, you ended up doing a disproportionate amount of work. But now, it’s all done. The powerpoint is assembled, and you’ll be presenting it next B day. There’s an issue, though. You still have 45 minutes left in class. You just spent the last week reading two (admittedly long) books. You don’t want to go to the library and check out another one so soon. You finished all your homework for your other classes. So what options do you have? You can slip out of class while the teacher isn’t looking and wander the halls, maybe go mess around and vape in the bathroom if that’s your thing. You could skip class and go to McDonalds, which opens up a whole new mess of liability for the school. Or, you can open a school Chromebook or your own laptop, go to www.coolmathgames.com and spend 45 minutes improving your problem-solving skills, reflexes, and reaction times.

    This scenario may have been hypothetical, but thousands of students find themselves in a similar situation every year. You’ve just removed one of their main options. Without the positive influence of Coolmath Games, what else will they do with their time? You’ve already blocked every gaming website made independently, and made with Google Sites, Weebly, and Wix. What else will students end up doing?

    One of the district’s main points of logic for removing the site was that you want students focused on their education, not on gaming. That’s a valid point, but it has a logical fallacy. Nearly every teacher wanders the room during class. If they don’t, they almost always have a view of every student’s screen, either in their line of sight or with the LanSchool app. Without fail, our fine teachers always spot off-task students and quickly remind them to get back to work. Blocking the site doesn’t change anything there. It just makes it so students who would otherwise be out of classing getting into shenanigans have no more reason to stay. Please make the right choice for Jordan School District and reinstate www.coolmathgames.com as an allowed site.

Sincerely,
Concerned Students