Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2005 8:21 AM
When I was a kid, we would watch Star Trek on television and when Captain Kirk, A.K.A. William Shatner, would whip out his transmitter, we thought that was cool! Actually, we thought it was “Neato!“ It made that chirping sound and had flashing lights. We would wait to hear those famous words, “Beam me up, Scotty.“ Well, they aren't beaming anyone up...yet. But, the public school system of Vail, Arizona, has decided that it is time to get into the here and now.
Empire High School, Unified School District of Arizona located outside of Tucson, will open its doors next week to 350 new students who will participate in the state's first all-laptop, all-wireless public high school. I should say, not only the state's first wireless school, but the country's first.
Instead of the traditional textbooks costing about $600, each student will receive their very own Apple iBook costing about $850. The traditional textbooks have proven to be not only cumbersome, but also costly with continually replacing out of date and damaged books.
I know many people will frown on this new initiative. Many will find fault. Many will complain. But I say, “Hats off!” to this public school district for trying to bring new, advanced technology to a state which has been plagued for years with problems in their public schools; Low pay for teachers, students from high crime areas, poor public schools, and problems with students crossing the border to attend a U.S. school (which is a whole new can of worms). But, Arizona has responded to each of these problems, and has managed to pull themselves up from their proverbial bootstraps.
I will make a prediction that the once out-on-a-limb state of Arizona (where education is concerned), will eventually be a shining educational beacon for our country. And when that happens, we all win.
LP