Ok, well they aren’t burning them, they just aren’t going to use them. they are going to, instead, buy each child a $750 laptop and have them use that.
I know I still might be a little hungover from the 4th, but how does this make any practical sense? Don’t get me wrong — I think you can learn more with a laptop and an Internet connection then you can from any textbook. This being said, I’m an IT guy. I fix PCs for a living. Like an MD at a herpes convention, I see the same ailments time and time again. Spyware and Viruses. That’s all thats really wrong with peoples’ PCs today. Rarely does a component break, and when it does, it gets replaced.
How is the school going to maintain and upgrade the laptops?
What about when someone spills their CapriSun juice bag all over it? Or, it gets stolen. Hell, a kid in NYC was killed for is $200 iPod last week.
Not to mention the cost of a single textbook is about $50, compared with $750 of a laptop. A laptop might last 5 years, but it might last 5 minutes. A textbook will last many, many years.
Too bad high schools can’t be taught more like college classes. Textbooks do get dated, but they also arent easily damaged and people don’t kill each other over them.