Re: Save the Apple ][gs - CONTACT your local schools...

[Jon O'Brien <jobrien@ais.net>]

John L. Graham wrote:
> 
> Our local grade school just got a boat load of new computers. Same old
> story... lot's of slick new software (which will be old "look at what our
> poor students are being forced to use" software in a few years) that I'm not
> quite sure what they're supposed to be learning from they weren't learning
> already. To be sure they're entertaining and the kid's luv'm (which is worth
> something I guess), but educational? I'm not all that convinced. Worth what
> we paid for them (after passing yet another levy for a school system that's
> still letting teachers go)? I seriously doubt it. I have yet to see computers
> meaningfully integrated into an educational program.

You're not alone- it's the same thing in my community (suburbs of Chicago).  My former high school was just rated as one of the best high 
schools in the country and I don't know of any computer labs being used to actually help a class except for the workstations running AutoCAD in 
the Applied Technology department.  The English department has a lab full of Apple IIgs's that still run AppleWorks 3.0- they one ONE Apple 
IIgs-specific program (Print Shop, of course).  The school system has money coming out of its ears (one of the few that do) but I really hate 
watching good tax money being thrown out the window towards computer equipment that doesn't actually serve a meaningful purpose.

Jon