Just got off the phone with my mom, who was calling to get some advice for a situation brewing at my alma mater.  She obviously doesn’t have kids there anymore, but one of their employees does, and is banging her head against the wall regarding problems with the laptop initiative. Apparently, the kids get to take them home, and some have been looking at porn, so the school has said "no more laptops for the rest of the year."

THIS IS SO WRONG.

For one, that’s like saying "Food fight in the lunchroom? No more hot lunch."  This is a state mandated, state funded program.  For two, if you set up the kids to fail, they will, but the ADULTS in charge are at fault.  From what I can gather, there are no login options — at my school, each kid (and teacher!) had their own login, and there was an admin login as well.  Kids were not permitted to download and install programs, or change other security settings, or the like.  Teachers (most anyway) had the admin password for when those things needed to be done.  If they’re looking at porn, and downloading crap, then the MLTI lead teacher needs to DO THEIR GODDAMN JOB.

Oh, and, the idea of an MLTI lead teacher was new to my mom, so she took that down.  Someone at that school is collecting a sweet stipend, for what is now the easiest job in the world — storing iBooks.  This is just SO WRONG.

Especially, ESPECIALLY, when you consider that I use my alma mater as the REASON why MLTI is so important.  That school is in the poorest county in the state, where if your dad has a job you’re lucky, if you have a dad.  If he still has a job at the MILL, you’re even luckier. It is POOR. AND RURAL. AND ISOLATED. and those are all of the reasons that MLTI is important, because the only goddamn way that place will survive is if they manage to educate their kids, and prepare them for the world at large.  Yes, it’s a good skill to know how to take down your own dinner, if need be, but you also need to know how to FUCKING THINK.  And by shutting down one of the BEST things that could happen for a rural, poor-as-shit school, it’s just one more way to tell those kids that they. are. screwed.  Fill out your Irving application, or try to sell your mom’s Oxy, because that’s really the best way out.  You aren’t smart enough or good enough to do anything different.

There’s already problems with teachers refusing to use technology in the best way possible.  (I abso-fucking-lutely HATE that teachers are probably the worst in taking initiative to learn new things, because what kind of model is that? What kind of example are you setting?) But to FLAT OUT REFUSE to even have the technology accessible? IT MAKES MY HEAD SPIN.

Long time readers, and those that know me, know that this is my passion. That’s why this entry is filled with swear words and ALL CAPS because it is absolutely infuriating to know that there are teachers who are TOO GODDAMN LAZY, and TOO GODDAMN AFRAID OF CHANGE to learn how best to not only implement technolgy, and use it, but to even MANAGE IT. It isn’t rocket science, but you’re pretty much guaranteeing that kids won’t even know what the hell rocket science is, when you leave their education up to people that think that ‘the Berlin Wall wasn’t real, just a concept.’ One of my teaching philosophies stems around being a partner in learning, but I bet you ten american dollars that the teachers in that dank basement are into the teacher-as-keeper-of-information model.  Take away the laptops,  then the kids can’t prove you wrong, can they?

OH MY GOD MY HEAD HURTS.

Anyway. I gave my mom some info, told her to have her employee call the University, to call the MLTI project and raise hell about the fact that these kids are being SHOVED into the digital divide while whoever is the lead teacher sits back and collects their cash.  And you know? If the basketball team was, oh, say, all caught drinking, or if the ‘star’ had alcohol poisoning so bad that he vomited and defecated all over the library in study hall, they sure as shit wouldn’t bench HIM for the year. (I know, because that actually happened while I was at school. I mean, what else are you going to do at lunch besides drink a shitload of cheap vodka while driving around town in your sweet ass Monte Carlo?)