There's something so uniquely humiliating about giving a class presentation in high school. If you're underprepared, you look like an idiot and get a lousy grade. If you're overprepared, you seem like a high-strung overachiever. You have to strike this perfect balance of being both knowledgeable and unattached to the material, which is incredibly difficult to hit if you're nervous about giving a presentation in the first place.
All this is complicated by the rise of smartphones in the classroom. If you were a teenager giving a presentation, would you feel better or worse if everyone was on their phones during the whole thing? Some might feel relieved that their peers aren't paying much attention and don't care if their work is good or bad, but others would be understandably bothered that they aren't getting the respect they deserve. The teen in this story is the latter, and she rewards the kids who care enough to turn their phones off.
This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
