Dear Bernie,

I am the parent of a 9th grader at Lakeside and heard recently that there has been a decision to have all students at the upper school purchase laptop computers for next year. I understand that the laptops are likely to cost between $2,000 and $3,000 and that this will be at the parents' expense. Presumably, those planning for this new requirement have been talking with parents about the decision. However, in talking with a number of the other 9th grade parents, it seems that many are not well informed about the decision and have some serious concerns. I would like to share our concerns in the hopes that it may either influence the ultimate decision or at least affect how the program is implemented. Some of our concerns are as follows:

  1. The biggest concern is financial. For many of us, paying the tuition at Lakeside is a real strain as it continues to go up each year. We do not quite qualify for financial aid but are right on the margin as to whether we can really afford to send our child(ren) to this school. We are certainly not saving much money for college tuition since our first priority right now is meeting the monthly Lakeside payments. For many of us, our monthly tuition payments exceed our mortgage payments. Adding the purchase of a laptop to next year's payments may in fact affect some families' decision as to whether their child can return to the school next year.
  2. The second big concern is that our children already have home desktop computers many of which were bought during the past 1-2 years specifically for their use to meet the requirements of Lakeside. These were at a cost of $1,500-$2,000. What do students need with two computers? This is truly an over consumption of technology since there are also desktops available at school. We cannot sell the home computer to anyone as they are 1-2 years old yet they are perfectly functional for our students to write papers, use EXCEL, access the Internet, etc. Laptops are by far more expensive, become obsolete quickly and are prone to both damage and theft.
  3. The benefits to our students of having laptops do not seem compelling to us. One of the benefits of having a laptop that was conveyed to me was that it would, in fact, replace graphing calculators. We have already spent $80 on a graphing calculator this year. This is only an argument for those entering 9th grade next year and it is a relatively small expense compared to the cost of a laptop. A second reason for laptops cited was to take advantage of software to enhance the learning of languages. This too seems like a weak argument since we may be able to add this feature to our home desktop computers at a minimal cost. Will this feature be used during the school day or at home at night?
  4. A final concern is the amount, weight and value of what our students carry back and forth to school each day and the lack of lockers of appropriate size to securely store these items when they are not in use. Our son carries a backpack to school each day that weighs 25-30 pounds. I truly cannot comfortably even lift this pack! In addition, he has to carry a sports bag daily and three days a week must carry his musical instrument to school for orchestra. The value of these items alone is somewhere between $500-$1000. When Paul goes to play at a football or basketball game, the players must take their bags with them to be left in the bus or stacked up on the bleachers. I am always concerned about his musical instrument getting damaged on one of these trips but he has to bring it home to practice. If we add to this load a laptop with a weight of 12 lbs and a value of $2-3k, the problem becomes even more serious.

Yes, we want our children to be up on the state of the art of computer technology but they are already keeping up with their home desktop computers. Will adding 15-20% to the cost of attending the school next year add a commensurate value to their Lakeside education? That is the question we (parents, teachers, administrators) should all be asking ourselves.

Thank you, Bernie, for listening and for taking into account these concerns.

Sincerely,
(name deleted)