I have one son in his senior year in electrical engineering with a 3.8 GPA who can't afford and hence doesn't have a notebook computer, a second child in her senior year in high school who will have to live at home and start at a community college to get a college education (and without a notebook computer), and a third starting his freshman year in high school. Since the last child is also facing college without a notebook computer, I don't know what he'll do. He may have to settle for a $30 tape recorder and his sister's desktop, which was passed down to her from her older brother's wife, who got it second hand (and home-built) from her husband--my oldest son. I suspect that my family's reasonable accommodation to our financial limitations and the recognition of the need for computer access is typical of most American families.
I thought it telling when the colleges stated that they would save money by not having to provide open access computers for students. Perhaps that is their real motive, since possession of a notebook computer has not been proven to have greater impact on a student's performance or outcomes than possession or access to a desktop model.
I run an open access computer technology center in one of the poorest communities in the US, in a colonia on the US-Mexico border. If any of our local higher education institutions would dare to set such a requirement, they would eliminate access to college for everyone here.
This is an action that increases the 'educational divide'. Shame on these 'public' colleges.
Kathleen Muro [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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