To: Doug Schuler 3/22/01
From: Lyndsay Downs
Re: Proposed Laptop Program at Lakeside

I'm writing as a past-parent and member of the original Laptop Pilot Task Force.

I take umbrage at your repeated statements that the proposed laptop program was a rushed decision and not well considered. The original committee was formed in the fall of 1997, and we met once a month for nine months. We read reams of opinion pieces, in addition to what little real research we could find; we had speakers present their views, both for and against; we interviewed a 10th Grade Lakeside student who had attended Forest Ridge through 9th Grade; several teachers did visits at other schools with laptop programsQeven as far away as Chicago. The committee was a broad group: teachers, administrators, computer support people, librarians, and communications staff, from both the upper school and the middle school, plus two parents. We agonized over that original decision before concluding it was worth a shot. I am proud of how that committee did its work, and I know there has been much more such careful consideration and evaluation in the years since.

Furthermore, laptops WILL BE at the upper school next year, naysayers or not, Laptop Program or not. The present 8th graders will bring them, along with two years of enthusiastic use. Absent a Laptop Program, I fear that well-to-do families will then rush out and buy laptops for their little boopsies, the middle class will struggle with the cost-benefit analysis, and the financial aid kids will miss the boat and feel deprived. The mish-mash of equipment that results will be unmanageable and the teachers will be unprepared in the extreme.

Finally, I'd like to implore you and all worried parents to TRUST the excellent teachers and the excellent administrators who will be working to ensure that your kids get an ever more excellent education!