Dear Bernie,

I was looking forward to the changes I foresaw under your stewardship. After all, I felt you espoused beliefs in accordance with mine, those of the need for community, diversity, and for the modeling of lives lived in pursuit of values other than material ones. The laptop mandate strikes me as, at best, a diversion from, and at worst, antithetical to those values you championed. I want my kids to be computer literate, but I confess to discomfort with the vision you now advocate at meetings, in which the future is saturated with all things digital and cellular. Assuming that is indeed the wave of the future, it's one I'd opt not to ride.

I've made a practice of entrusting my kids' education to those whose educational aims matched my own , and keeping any petty objections to myself. My only reservation at Lakeside was its reputation as an elitist school for the scions of abundant wealth. It's already a school whose families routinely own multiple computers and now to insist they have the latest technological fix to add to the collection impresses me as wretched excess.

I'm hoping you give some thought and empathy to the keenly felt disaffections of some parents, Bernie. Many are unable to speak up due to myriad affiliations with the school, and some are just plain uncomfortable questioning authority. I appreciate that you are willing to listen, but I want to believe that your listening is not merely a palliative, but truly responsive.

Thanks for your time,

Terry Frankel
10th Grade Class Representative