To text or not to text? Is that the question?

For 17-year-old Sydney Key, using her cell phone to text is faster than using it to talk. “When you get fast at it, it’s just easier than calling somebody,” said the junior at Palmer High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “Plus, you can end a conversation by not texting back.” Key said she often texts without looking at the phone. “That’s why it’s easy in class. You can just sneak it under the desk and send a text," she said.

Some schools are beginning to embrace the technology teens are using—including cell phones and texting. At Doherty High School in Colorado Springs, teachers decide whether cell phones can be on, or used, in class. Principal Jill Martin said students are not allowed to use phones to text or call their friends; phones are only allowed for educational purposes. But even that is a change from last school year, when phones had to be turned off.

And English teacher Eric Beard incorporated the language of text messaging into a lesson on Shakespeare. Read more in The Gazette online.