Students Treat Laptops With Care
from the of-course-they-do dept
Apparently, when the program to give all students in the state of Maine laptops, there were two big criticisms: first, people were afraid that giving every kid a laptop would make them anti-social. This is such a ridiculous claim that has been disproven so many times, we won't even bother with it (though, the article has random anecdotal evidence suggesting it isn't true at all). The second is that seventh grade students weren't responsible enough to take care of expensive laptops. I'm not sure why adults always seem to underestimate kids, but the evidence so far shows that the kids treat their laptops with care. They know what they've been given, and they don't want to screw it up. I'm sure that laptops will get broken, and there will be some misuse over time. But, on the whole, seventh graders know what a computer is and how fragile it can be, and are certainly responsible enough to care for one.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
