News, In Maine, a laptop for every middle-schooler. (homes, employment)

[mollysmiles]

Don't even get me started on the Mac vs. Micro.... I'm a diehard MAC user....along with most of the music, art, and a growing media industry. Oh, publishing as well. Some of those fantastic Mac programs should make Gates' developers hang their heads in shame. Anyway....

From an educational standpoint the Macs are used simply because they're more intuitive, and things truly "make sense". To kids learning programs that's enormously beneficial. I support the laptop program. I've seen how much my kids have learned--and really, maybe garage band isn't the *most* important thing in the world, but their comfort level on the computer is incredible. The graphics my kids are capable of doing and the portfolios they've put together are amazing. They didn't learn it for themselves either.....they happen to have amazing teachers that love technology. Their laptops don't come home....they have a computer class where they're taught the programs and what they can do. They use those laptops NOT for writing reports and surfing, they're learning the ability of the programs and the technology behind them.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

Probably because the taxpayer funded educational community could AFFORD the Apple.

I am in favour of computer skills being taught to children in our society.

I live in the wealthiest nation on the planet. I have a college education, as does my Dw. We each have PCs on our desks. And we provided PCs for our children.

I do not intend to advocate a non-modern education for our children.

I do remind folks that US tax-payers did not always pay for education, and it was began as an experiment. An experiment which has not been fully successful. Dumping more money into this experiment is not always the best response to a failing experiment.

If a school desires to entirely get rid of textbooks and move to PCs only; I am in favour of that move. As it would reduce the expense of operating a public funded school system.

[Maineah]

I'd agree with you now Molly though not back in the Apple ll C days of old. Apples were junk then and just as hard to use as the old DOS based IBM clones.
Our first "home computer" was a used Mac in the '80s I still have it in the attic. It was one of the first run of Macs and cost my Father-in-law nearly $5,000!
It has a six inch black and white screen, has no hard drive and uses 200 kilobyte single sided hard disks! It still runs too!
Macs have always had better graphics and publishing software. No argument there.
I'd also agree Mac based computers are intuitive that is until Windows came along and blew them completely out of the water. That's why we (and most of the planet) switched away from Macs...there was just NO software for them.
The Macs are again catching up in design firms,movie production, music production and the like but are still no where near the popularity and production level of Microsoft based PC's for general business applications. I like Macs and have been thinking of switching back next time I upgrade.
Apple darn near went under and if they had not been ressurected by the introduction of the I-pod there might not have been any choice!

[Labamba]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

I do remind folks that US tax-payers did not always pay for education, and it was began as an experiment. An experiment which has not been fully successful. Dumping more money into this experiment is not always the best response to a failing experiment.

So are you suggesting that we terminate the "experiment"?

If not, what do you think needs to be done in order to try to rescue and repair the experiment, that doesn't involve dumping [in] more money?

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Labamba

So are you suggesting that we terminate the "experiment"?

If not, what do you think needs to be done in order to try to rescue and repair the experiment, that doesn't involve dumping [in] more money?

People talk about our nation's public-funded ed system as if it has been in existance for many years; as if there was once a time when it was successful.

We do need to stop drugging children. We need to give them outdoor recesses once again and let chidlren outside to run and play once an hour. Forcing children to sit still in classrooms without anopportunity to burn off their energy, is wrong.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

People talk about our nation's public-funded ed system as if it has been in existance for many years; as if there was once a time when it was successful.

We do need to stop drugging children. We need to give them outdoor recesses once again and let chidlren outside to run and play once an hour. Forcing children to sit still in classrooms without anopportunity to burn off their energy, is wrong.

We should give children pot brownies at lunch!

[Labamba]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

People talk about our nation's public-funded ed system as if it has been in existance for many years; as if there was once a time when it was successful.

There was a time when we [our ancestors] thought walking on all 4s was successful.

[dmyankee]

Originally Posted by Labamba

So are you suggesting that we terminate the "experiment"?

If not, what do you think needs to be done in order to try to rescue and repair the experiment, that doesn't involve dumping [in] more money?

Since they rely on the confiscation of wealth for their existence, why...yes!

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Labamba

There was a time when we [our ancestors] thought walking on all 4s was successful.

That is a topic for debate.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

Since they rely on the confiscation of wealth for their existence, why...yes!

Are you suggesting that our culture was more open for individual success, before we began paying 25% to 50% of our income on taxation?