Most parents are familiar with the morning checklist as their kids get ready to go off to school. They aren't yet as ubiquitous as gel pens and steno pads, but laptop computers are starting to be required accouterments for kids as early as middle school. But even public schools are striking deals with Compaq, Apple Computer, and other manufacturers in a rush to get this icon of the 21st century into the backpacks of as many students as possible. Here, a raucous debate has erupted between administrators and parents over the prep school's recent decision that all high school students should have their own laptops. These capabilities have nothing to do with a piece of machinery.
Laptops are a distraction, a PR exercise.
It's a fight that is beginning to echo across the land. In the Seattle area alone, about a dozen private schools require students to have their own laptops. Public schools cannot make the same requirement, but a few nationwide are experimenting with mandatory laptop or hand-held computers through combinations of government funding and private grants. Many advocates say laptops in schools is a promising way to end the digital divide between the races. That's one reason middle and high schools in Virginia's Henrico County will be distributing laptops to all students over the next three years.