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Parents pissed over mandatory $1,500 laptop for public elementary school students

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laptops are almost useless for elementary kids, the only piece of hardware they need is a nice calculator.

And what about the kids that walk to and from school, they're going to be easy pray for criminals looking to come up.
 
Originally posted by: mugs
Having 1st grade students use laptops in class - especially running an operating system that is almost certainly different from the one they've used at home - will only result in the teacher having to spend more time showing the kids how to use the computers and less time teaching. They have computer classes for a reason. Computers do not inherently make education better, and you do not need to use a computer every hour of every day to become adept at using computers. This is an idiotic program.
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thats pretty much the bottom line here. The jackass that thought of it should be required to pay for every student's laptop
 
Originally posted by: Ktulu
laptops are almost useless for elementary kids, the only piece of hardware they need is a nice calculator
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a calculator is already too much. I didn't start using a nice calculator until high school. And when the school did provide calculators they only performed simple functions (non scientific or graphing)
 
Originally posted by: mugs
Having 1st grade students use laptops in class - especially running an operating system that is almost certainly different from the one they've used at home - will only result in the teacher having to spend more time showing the kids how to use the computers and less time teaching. They have computer classes for a reason. Computers do not inherently make education better, and you do not need to use a computer every hour of every day to become adept at using computers. This is an idiotic program.
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Yep. That and if you give them a laptop you will gety more kids saying things like "why do I have to learn that, my laptop does that for me..."

Elem. is too young for a computer. That and even then a $400 amd sempron laptop would do everything they need and be about 1k less.

 
Originally posted by: Astaroth33
I think it is idiotic. Elementary school should be teaching kids how to read, write, learn basic mathematical operations, and the beginnings of critical thinking. The use of computers are not required for any of this.
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yep. pencil, paper, books, and the mind is all they need.
 
Originally posted by: talyn00
Originally posted by: Ktulu
laptops are almost useless for elementary kids, the only piece of hardware they need is a nice calculator
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a calculator is already too much. I didn't start using a nice calculator until high school. And when the school did provide calculators they only performed simple functions (non scientific or graphing)
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you're right, calc's are only showing kids the easy way out.
 
my teacher g/f said that it is not legal for a public school system to force families to pay for ANYTHING.

*edit*
replaced "ask" with "force"
 
Originally posted by: Rufio
my teacher g/f said that it is not legal for a public school system to ask families to pay for ANYTHING.
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Then I guess all the school trips and supplies I needed for my entire public school education that the teachers and school asked my parents to pay for or purchase was illegal.

Me thinks she confused "ask" with "force." Even then, it still would be a gray line.
 
Originally posted by: Rufio
my teacher g/f said that it is not legal for a public school system to ask families to pay for ANYTHING.
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Might depend on the state. But teachers always have their "list" they give out before school saying your child will need... So its kinda a fine line.

But yea, "pencil, paper, books, and the mind is all they need." :thumbsup:
 
Why not just fundraise and build a computer center for each school (or put more computers in the school library). I imagine putting about 30 computers would cost about $45,000 (1500/comp), but it's better than having 700 kids per school have their parents pay for it. I mean, it's not like they're going to be using it all the time in the classroom.
 
The administrators probably signed a nice contract with Apple that got them some kind of good kickback.
 
Originally posted by: BigJ
Originally posted by: Rufio
my teacher g/f said that it is not legal for a public school system to ask families to pay for ANYTHING.
Click to expand...

Then I guess all the school trips and supplies I needed for my entire public school education that the teachers and school asked my parents to pay for or purchase was illegal.

Me thinks she confused "ask" with "force." Even then, it still would be a gray line.
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I think there was a confusion there. I remember some kids in 6th grade who didn't go to a week long field trip in the mountains because their parents didn't want to pay for it. And I remember in elementary school, my school actually handed out pencils, pens, erasers to students.
 
The computers also let kids use Internet-based prep courses for college entrance exams such as the SAT
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$40 Barron's SAT Prep book FTW! Much cheaper than a $1500 laptop, plus I used it and did pretty well on the test.
 
Originally posted by: Kev
In college everyone who had a laptop used it for IMing and fcking around on the internet during class. If people do this in college WTF do you expect kids to do? Laptops are a waste in the classroom.
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That's what I used my laptop for in class 😛 Laptops don't belong in class.
 
Originally posted by: pontifex
Originally posted by: Slew Foot
Everyone knows that public schools are simply a repository for kids whose parents dont want to pay for day care.
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wow, now thats a bold statement.
i'm sorry, but most people don't have the money to send their kids to posh private schools. your comment is way out of line.
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Even if i did, i dont think that i'd want to.
 
if they're lacking computers, then why not get a $500 mac mini? It's much cheaper and does the same thing.

every student would be in charge of the mini and locking it up at the end of the day 😛

where's that $100 laptop? 😉
 
Originally posted by: iamwiz82
a G4 iBook can be had for $900 with student discount. Nice to see a school gouging.
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QFT

Funny how school is making kids pay 1500 for a notebook that cost under 1000 in the stores.
 
Originally posted by: nakedfrog
For as long as I can remember, elementary schools have used Apples/Macs. Doesn't make much sense, when 97% of the rest of the computer world doesn't.
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It was like that where I went. All the way through 8th grade they had Macs, the High School was the only place where they had Windows pcs.
 
Something similar happened in Georgia. A county was trying to get laptops for all the kids in their school system but they were Apple laptops that were really expensive. The school superintendent who pushed for the deal is now under investigation for fraud.
 
Mandatory high ticket items should NOT be in non-elective education. Private schools? Sure. College? Yeah, I can see it. Elementary? No.

Computers should be in elementary classes in either a seperate class to learn about them, maybe a couple in each room as tools, and a lab where kids can go to do classwork. They should be available, but parents should not be required to buy them. Now, maybe, and it's a big maybe, if they were $100-200 items w/ some financial aid available I can see it for Jr. High-high school. So in a decade it may happen.
 
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