Schoolphones - the Real Story

Blame and Thank Linda Key!

OK, so I’m a late starter as a father. My son, Talbot, was born when I was 36 so when he entered Palm Beach Public School,I had already passed 40. His first grade teacher, Linda Key, was everything parents could wish for, kind, caring and dedicated. She was and remains a major driving spirit behind our education products.

A reality of modern education is break out work with computers, audio tapes, CD’s (even a few remaining records). To keep noise levels to any manageable level in the classroom, headphones are the solution most often selected by teachers and administrators. Mrs. Key, like thousands of other teachers, I have learned, was very concerned about children sharing headphones in light of the perennial problem of head lice propagating in the school community. Her solution was to collect $2 from every parent to purchase individual headphones for her students and to store them in separate plastic bags to minimize the possibility of headphone use contributing to the lice problem.

Sometimes Fathers should learn to keep their mouths shut!

Committed to participating in my son’s education, this not so young father agreed to go to school three mornings a week before work to help students work with a computer reading program. This isn’t always easy because I travel a great deal. By the time I made my first appearance in the classroom it was probably the third week of school. Folding myself down onto a first grade desk chair I reached for the small sandwich bag that contained my assigned student’s headphone. An earpiece was broken off. I looked at many of the other bags in the bin and noted that a large proportion of the headphones were broken. This after only three weeks of school. I spoke to Mrs. Key about this and she apologized that these were the best headphones she could purchase with the limited funds collected.

My work for the past 24 years has been in the electronics and audio industry. TV’s, stereos, you know, that stuff the Jone’s have. For the past 15 years I have owned and operated a company that at first distributed and now manufactures listening devices for people with hearing loss and speech devices for people with weak or injured speech. Our devices are used in major theatres, cinemas, churches and public buildings throughout North America, Europe and Australia. So...I have been around headphones for more than a little while. Our ChatterVOX product has become the standard in portable voice amplification products in the world.

Without so much as a thought, I told Mrs. Key, “I’ve been in the audio business for years. I can find a headphone up to the task.” Such bold statements should never be made without a little background research. Suffice it to say that I ordered about 40 different headphones over the next few months and teacher after teacher quickly pointed out the flaws of each. Not ready to admit defeat, I took my quest to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) where I walked and talked to every headphone company I could find, domestic, German, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese, I tried them all.

From the input of all the various teachers I had an idea of what was needed, but one troublesome element remained. The headband of every design I had evaluated would break when bent backward. Now, normal folks don’t bend their headphones inside out, but children are exceptional. They are born with an innate talent for durability testing. Finally at the booth of a Hong Kong headphone manufacturer and working in a tortured mix of English and gesturing, I felt I’d met the man with a viable solution. He prepared samples in record time and I excitedly showed them at the Florida Educational Technology Conference.

Everyone listened...they liked what they heard. Features...all met the short list of the early teacher interviews. Last but not least, the headband. To my, and the teachers’, amazement time after time we tied the plastic headbands into knots...They never broke. We were onto something..

But what about cost.? Parents would balk if they cost too much. And what about warranty? There were, and continue to be, horror stories about lifetime warranties with handling fees so steep they nearly equal the cost of the headphone and the delay getting them back meant weeks, even months without headphones.

Problem 1: PRICE. By keeping packaging and pricing structures simple and uncomplicated we could deliver a headphone for the cost of a BigM and C-ke (at that time $3.50. Recent inflationary pressures have, sadly after 10 years, forced us to increase this to $4.00).

Problem 2: WARRANTY. Teachers and students need a headphone product that will stand the rigors of the classroom for a school year.. Longer than that is icing on the cake. Shorter than that interrupts the educational process. We determined that a simple warranty structure would save administrative cost and result in greater satisfaction, but how to administer it.. Study the photo on the facing page carefully. He was, at that age, and is (see the backphones photo) the greatest joy (and occasional tribulation) I have on this earth. I have trusted him to teachers for nearly 13 years and they haven’t broken him yet. I think that qualifies teachers to administer a warranty for my headphones.

I guess that sums up the story. SchoolPhones were made for you and your students. We hope our efforts will enhance your teaching talents and help your students be more successful in their school career. We believe in you and will work diligently to provide you with good tools to enhance the classroom learning environment.