Being 14 just got harder with laptop loss

It is really hard being 14. I remember those days. So much emotion, so many questions, trying to gain the independence you feel you deserve but have done very little to earn. Being 14 is really hard, but can you imagine how hard it is in 2004? On top of all the growing- up stuff, they have to look forward to their future with headlines of terrorism, corporate improprieties, and a constant stream of news of strife from both the United States and abroad.

Then all of a sudden, a glimmer of hope. School, which isn’t a 14-year-old’s favorite place, gets a whole bunch of laptops and you are given one to use all the time, every day, in every class. Computers are what you understand, they are your life, you speak this language. School begins to change, the pace picks up, you are doing things that are fresh, up to date, this is cool. You start looking forward to school, you complete projects that are difficult, integrated between subjects, interesting.

Wow, school with computers is much different and you start thinking about next year, high school. Everyone has always told you that high school is much different from middle school. Longer classes, tougher workload, four tough years. High school with these computers that you are using, that would be something. The possibilities through four years would be endless, projects including communicating with experts via e-mail and the Web, up to date, multi-media rich information at your fingertips, the ability to shape your education to fit your needs. You start looking forward to high school, your attitude is completely different about school in general, and your parents and family.

These dreams seem to have come to a screeching halt. With the budget mess immobilizing the Maine Legislature, the forward-thinking leaders decided to solve the problem by taking away arguably the most successful, innovative idea education has seen in decades. This decision restores services to some people in Maine while it takes hope away from 33,000 middle-school students as well as thousands following them in sixth and fifth grade. I would contend that this decision goes beyond that, far, far beyond that.

I believe this decision should spell the end of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, or MLTI, the laptop program. April vacation is next week, the plug should be pulled and the laptops shipped back to Apple. There is no reason this first-in-the-nation program should continue if it ends after eighth grade. Why on earth should the students want to learn with this device, spend time with new programs, challenge themselves to work harder? Why should we give the students a false sense that this is the way that education should be? It is going to go away eventually, they are going to take the laptop soon, why not take it now so we can have a few weeks of school left to go back to the way life used to be.

Why would teachers want to work this summer on learning the best ways to take advantage of the technology available to them when they know it will end up being a lost cause in a year or two? In order to prepare our Maine students to succeed, we need to go back to using textbooks, notes, notes, notes, quiz on Friday.

Goodbye, MLTI, I will miss you. The change that the laptops brought to the classroom was something to behold. Students working together, interacting with teachers more than ever, completing real-world, challenging projects, enjoying coming to school. Goodbye to all my friends at Apple computer, systems engineers and program directors.

Men and women who moved to Maine with their families, bought houses, I presume, made a nice salary and I am sure gave much of it back to Maine in the form of taxes. I wonder, how many more people would Apple have had to hire and move to Maine if this high school plan would have been accepted? Economic development? I am sure Apple will have to close the beautiful office they are renting at the Pineland campus, I am sure there are a few other companies waiting to rent that space.

If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten. Using this mentality, Maine is really in trouble. The laptop program was created by former Gov. Angus King and friends because he saw that Maine was 38th in the nation in personal income and Maine was doing all the same programs that the other 50 states were doing. Now, we have had this new, fresh, successful program that no other state has, the students love it, the researchers say that it works and we can’t find a way to fund it.

So, back to the way life should be. Back to classrooms that look like and function much like they have for generations. We were so close.

Goodbye, MLTI, I will miss you.

It must be really hard being 14.

Eric Chamberlin teaches eighth-grade social studies at Boothbay Region Elementary School. He was named Apple Distinguished Educator in 2003 and can be contacted at echamberlin@mac.com and echamberlin@middlemaine.org