To Whom It May Concern:

As a recent graduate of Lakeside School, I'd like to express my concern about the laptop program currently planned for next year. Lakeside has traditionally been a school that has been open to input from students and their parents. This is by far the most drastic change to take place at Lakeside in recent years, perhaps ever, and it alarms me that it is happening in spite of all the opposition from students and parents alike.

What I recall as the single best aspect of my education at Lakeside was the creativity and originality of the teachers. I've talked to many teachers at Lakeside in several different departments who are strongly opposed to the laptop program simply because they would have to comply with a more standardized curriculum. They will be forced to insert this new technology into their classes where, in many cases, it is not only unnecessary, but useless and counterproductive. Several teachers I talked to feel that the laptops will be much more of a burden than a teaching aid.

In addition to their unpopularity among much of the faculty, the technology is not reliable enough to be used efficiently in a classroom. Yes, one computer being used by a teacher to present a lesson is fairly reliable, but in a classroom full of computers there is bound to be at least one which isn't working properly. Vast amounts of class time will be wasted due to computer glitches. Realistically, more class time will be wasted than they are worth.

My third objection to the program is that they really seem to me to be redundant. Lakeside has several computer labs, all of which are barely used by classes, if at all. Lakeside has not made nearly enough use of its copious computing resources which could be used very effectively by classes in which computers are sometimes necessary. Why couldn't the students use computers in the labs when their work requires it, rather than having to lug around a five pound, almost-obsolete Toshiba laptop which they will barely need. Is it realistic to think that students will use them for taking notes? In the middle of a lecture does a student have time to stop typing his or her notes to reformat the text? Why require the use of laptops when a pencil and paper work far better for most of their proposed uses?

Technology is a good thing when used correctly, but I think that this is a very excessive and careless use of it. We are distancing the students from the teachers too much and having them rely too heavily upon technology. What will happen to all the unique handmade posters that students make for presentations? They will turn into cookie cutter designs all employing the same bland clip art and hokey fonts. They will lose their personality and flair in favor of the uniform, banal Powerpoint templates. This whole program sounds to me like a huge step in the wrong direction rather than progress.

In addition, I think it is absurd to believe that a student will be able to sell back their laptop after four years of use. Every two years the speed of the average computer doubles. That means that after four years of high school a student will be stuck with an aging dinosaur of a computer which works at a quarter of the speed of current technology. Even if they were able to sell it, they would only get a couple of hundred dollars back. That's not a great return on a two thousand dollar investment.

Lakeside is blessed with a faculty that other schools can only dream of. That is the reason I enjoyed my years at Lakeside so much. Every one of the teachers has a very unique and interesting approach to teaching their subject. That is what makes Lakeside the great school that it is. It deeply saddens me to think that those teachers will have to conform to a standard method of incorporating technology into their curriculum. I see it getting to the point where it won't matter what teacher a student gets because they'll all just be staring at the same little glowing Toshiba screen all day long rather than at a person. The last thing Lakeside can afford to do is put any distance between its faculty and its students and that's just what the laptops will bring about. Instead of meeting person to person with their teachers, students will most likely just e-mail their teachers thus putting a great distance between students and their teachers. Teachers don't need to have to compete with the myriad distractions available to students on a computer, ranging from surfing the web and playing computer games to e-mailing and instant messaging their friends in the class room.

I believe Lakeside offers a very personalized education to each student, but with the introduction of laptops Lakeside runs the risk of turning into a machine, producing uniform, identical students rather than unique individuals. I believe that the program is completely contrary to the spirit of Lakeside's mission statement and that it is the worst mistake the school could ever make.

-Spencer Harris '00 spharris@bucknell.edu