Bernie,

I first want to applaud you on your efforts at extending multiculturalism, and community education and service at Lakeside. I also want to mention that my 10th grade son Reed truly loves the intellectual challenges he receives at Lakeside. I feel that you and the rest of the Lakeside community are genuinely interested in providing an exemplary educational experience for our children and, at the same time, help develop them into outstanding community and global citizens.

I am writing to you both as a concerned parent and as a computer professional with degrees in computer science and software engineering. As a teacher of computing at the college level I am particularly interested in the role of computing in education. As you know, I have been critical of the proposed mandatory Laptop program for some time. Since there never seemed to be an appropriate time to discuss it and register concerns I withheld my public comments until very recently. I wrote the note that you received last week. I also sent it to a number of parents. I have now received quite a number of concerns from parents, teachers, and students based on my note to you I have prepared a summary based on those notes which I have included below. The issues focus on the educational value of the experiment but also, not insignificantly, on various other costs (including financial) that have not been factored in appropriately. The issue of process has also been brought up time and time again: There seems to have been inadequate participation from start to finish for an experiment of this magnitude.

Based on these concerns I recommend that Lakeside suspend this process and begin a more open process that, not incidentally, clearly identifies the educational needs first. I know that this recommendation may seem radical. I don't think it is. After much reflection it seems the only responsible approach. There are too many concerns that are not being addressed and the "need" for laptops has not been demonstrated adequately. There is definitely no need to hurry into an expensive and risky program of this magnitude. There is broad agreement that computer literacy is important; there is no corresponding acknowledgement that mandatory laptops are the "answer."

I want to thank you for your recent note and your offer to meet and discuss these issues. I can meet with you Monday, March 12 or Tuesday. March 13, during the day. Would either of those times work for you?

Respectfully yours,

      Doug Schuler
      Father of Reed Schuler (10th grade)
      206.634.0752
      douglas@scn.org

Here as promised is my summary of the objections to the mandatory laptop program at Lakeside. I realize that the program looks increasingly like a fait accompli but if only for the historical record I feel obliged to submit this report. In the week since I sent my objections to the director of the upper school I've received about a dozen e-mails and telephone calls from parents, teachers, and students which I have incorporated into this report. With the exception of one note voicing support, without elaboration, for the program (and some that were non-committal), the messages have been strongly critical of the program. Also, I should point out, no respondent was "anti-computer;" many have worked with computers for years. Everyone who contacted me acknowledged that it will become increasingly important in our society to be able to use computers effectively. Please note that this is my report -- not the result of a committee -- so any flaws in reporting or reasoning are mine. It contains my opinions in addition to the opinions I received. It is a dissenting view. I'm not sure it's a minority view, however.

A variety of objections have been voiced. One fundamental objection is that there is little or no demonstrated need for such a radical and expensive program. One person suggested that the program was an "inchoate educational experiment." Several people expressed doubts as to the educational rationale of the program -- what problem was it trying to solve? And for each identified problem there would be several other possible approaches with considerably less risk. Unfortunately the administration appears to be intransigent and is apparently unwilling to countenance any other options but a full-blown mandatory laptop program.

Lakeside students are probably among the most computer literate students in the country. Access to computers is also not an issue for the vast majority of Lakeside students. This makes the program difficult to justify on those grounds. And, if some students are falling behind technologically, Lakeside can help them in a number of ways. But this not a sufficient reason to force every single student to purchase a laptop. Lakeside students, also, are being accepted to top-flight schools in large numbers. Somebody -- presumably the teachers and the entire Lakeside community -- must be doing something right! The same teachers who are successfully educating our children don't appear to be whole-heartedly supporting the laptop initiative. Indeed the idea seems to have been put forth and promoted with little input from the faculty.

Some of the strongest objections focus on learning styles and quality of learning. The first concern is that putting too strong an emphasis on computers will favor students with certain types of learning styles; those students with logic and mathematical strengths may be aided more than students who are more social learners or who learn through more physical or creative routes. Also, what types of learning activities does the focus on laptops promote? Several parents expressed concerns that an increased reliance on computers and the Internet would diminish quality of education by discouraging deliberation and reflection. It may even trivialize learning in some ways. Increasing reliance on technology would spotlight technological wizardry over substantive learning. Anyone who has seen the video of the presentation that Bill Gates gave at Lakeside on his view of education and technology knows that is a very real possibility.

There were also a number of concerns raised on issues that were not educational in nature. The weight of the computer, for example. I know that my son has several large bulky text books already and the laptop will add an additional 6.5 pounds to that burden. I personally am concerned about eyesight. My eyes are far worse than they were when I was young. This of course can be attributable to aging but I can't help but think that 20 years of staring into the screen probably haven't helped. The March 5th "Laptops at Lakeside" memo which states that the administration is "exploring the availability of textbooks on CD" only exacerbates this worry. Since I find the very idea of reading an 800 page book on a computer screen abhorrent I wonder how much book reading the people making these recommendations have actually done on a computer. Other concerns that were expressed include the fact that hauling around an expensive, desirable computer might be a bit of a recipe for disaster knowing that our children sometimes have slight lapses in attention to detail.

Finally as might be expected there were several negative comments on the process. The report that former Lakeside teacher, Judith Lightfoot, wrote on the pilot program in the seventh grade was not made readily available; nor was the report from the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Many parents and teachers felt that there was no real dialogue on this important issue and that they were shut out of the process; comments that were critical were dismissed with the unreassuring statement that "computers are the wave of the future." Other people expressed regrets that they did not offer their opinions earlier. In any case it looks as if there are now some lingering bad feelings among both teachers and parents that may not go away soon. Questions as to the roles of both teachers and parents in major decisions such as these are likely to persist.

To the administration's credit it has apparently backed away somewhat from its earlier techno-utopian view that the use of laptops in the classroom would radically transform education and that the students would do everything on the computer. Now the report acknowledges that many teachers won't even use the laptops very much. This is a step in the right direction. Instead of feeling there is a fundamental misunderstanding on the merits of computers in the classroom I now feel that this development will "just" be an additional expenditure of some $2000 (see note below) and represents a potentially disruptive element of the educational process. In spite of this misguided experiment Lakeside students will probably survive and continue their educational careers successfully.

Note: The original amount listed in this report for the laptops was $2500. I apologize for the error. Without extra batteries, etc. the amount now being quoted is under $2,000. However, with the tuition hike of $1500 the additional financial burden for next year is actually about $3,500.