Like educators around the world, school officials in Indonesia struggle to prevent students from being distracted by their cell phones. Recently, an Indonesian school went viral for hammering into students the importance of not violating the rules about mobile phone use in both a figurative and smashingly literal sense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ87ZzUAaxQ
Video of the incident, which went viral over the weekend, shows two teachers standing over a table covered in dozens of cell phones, with a crowd of students watching with concern from a distance. The cries of the crowd go up when the first teacher starts hammering away at the phones, and rise higher when the second teacher attacks the mobile devices with such vigor some fall from the table.
It turns out the video was shot at the ‘Wali Songo’ Ngabar Pesantren (Islamic Boarding School) in Ponorogo, East Java. A statement explaining the video was posted to the school’s social media account.
“The cell phones that were seen in the video were confiscated items that are prohibited, brought by students who tried to secretly bring cell phones into the dorms in violation of the rules, which can cause a disruption in the educational processes at the pesantren,” reads part of the statement.
The statement goes on to say that the hammering of the mobile phones was in accordance with the school’s rules and regulations and was intended to create a deterrent effect. It also mentioned that the viral video had not been made or sanctioned by the school.
We’re pretty sure the school also didn’t authorize this amusing gamelan “remix” of the video, putting the sounds of the traditional percussive instrument atop the sound of the hammering of cell phones. But it’s pretty perfect nonetheless.
