MA High School Forces All Students To Buy MacBooks

An anonymous reader sends in this excerpt from the Salem News: "A new program at Beverly High will equip every student with a new laptop computer to prepare kids for a high-tech future. But there's a catch. The money for the $900 Apple MacBooks will come out of parents' pockets. 'You're kidding me,' parent Jenn Parisella said when she found out she'd have to buy her sophomore daughter, Sky, a new computer. 'She has a laptop. Why would I buy her another laptop?' Sky has a Dell. Come September 2011, every student will need an Apple. They'll bring it to class and use it for homework. Superintendent James Hayes sees the technology as an essential move to prepare kids for the future. The School Committee approved the move last year, and Hayes said he's getting the news out now so families can prepare. 'We have one platform,' Hayes said. 'And that's going to be the Mac.'"

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I'd need an exemption

[Anonymous Coward]

As a member of the Stallman Cult, I am morally and religiously obligated not to work with closed platforms!

Re:What are they going to do?

[SkankinMonkey]

I would assume that the reason you are so underprivileged is because you failed to learn how to read in school. The article clearly states that the children will be provided with laptops during the school day if they can't buy one. They just can't bring it home since it is school property.

Re:Honestly

[easterberry]

You can't say "the 900 dollar mandatory price tag aside" and then say there's no issue. Putting a statement that you want to ignore the major issue in your post doesn't make it go away.

Re:Obligatory flame seed

[tsm_sf]

They are "requiring" Macs because they have more chic style cache.

It's built right into the hardware? That's awesome and creepy on so many different levels.

Please..

[Galestar]

Direct your hate mail this way: [e-mail]

Re:My two cents

[eln]

Hitler didn't have a laptop in school either, and look how he turned out. Clearly these laptops are necessary.

Re:My two cents

[samkass]

Albert Einstein didn't have a laptop in school.
Ben Franklin didn't have a laptop in school.
Stephen Hawking didn't have a laptop in school.
Thomas Edison didn't have a laptop in school.
Nikola Tesla didn't have a laptop in school.
Even Bill Gates didn't have a laptop in school.

...and near as I can tell, not one of them could code worth a crap! :)

Re:Don't let reality get in the way of your anger

[gandhi_2]

I can't tell if you are joking or not.

Using tax-payer funds to subsidize personal Macintosh purchases?

Re:iNelson

[FurryOne]

Too bad you never learned that it was Mark Twain who said it.

Re:iNelson

[EventHorizon_pc]

Has anyone noticed that putting an exclamation after apple's iStuff makes it look like it's in spanish? iCarumba!

This is great.

[Loopy]

School requires macs (personal or loaned, wtfever). Kids do schoolwork on macs at school. Rich kids learn to have things handed to them. Normal kids learn to work to buy themselves a mac, or they learn to do things on the home PC and how to use compatibility tools and/or how to convert docs from one type to another for use across both macs and PCs. Either way, lots of people will learn how important a worth ethic is and how important it is to understand the PC world in general as well as knowing how to launch facebook on your particular device.

Win/Win.

Re:Don't let reality get in the way of your anger

[Panaflex]

Taxes are voluntary as well... just sayin'.

Re:Don't let reality get in the way of your anger

[prockcore]

Claris ate my homework. Moof.

Re:What are they going to do?

[prockcore]

You're overstating OSX's abilities... a kid can trash a mac just as easily as a PC. One of our designer's mac's fell to his stupidity just last week. He installed something like 5000 fonts... brought the system to its knees.

Re:iNelson

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong then, but I'll gladly admit that. (But now im going to follow that up with a bullshit excuse to cover my ass)

Rather than being a troll. (OK I am going to be a troll but if I say Im not then maybe no one will notice it)

I guess I expected higher of IBM. ( How dare they name something that I would not remember. I dont have time for their crap when I am trolling around being a Correction Nazi. They should have consulted me before naming anything)

* Dear Correction Nazi Please Choose 1
A. Get a life so that correcting the minor mistakes of others no longer is the main joy in your life
B. Pull Your Bottom Lip Up Over Your Head Then Swallow.

Re:iNelson

[aliddell]

Well, whoever really said it, we can safely attribute it to Oscar Wilde.

Re:iNelson

[mlynx]

iWhooosh!

lol yes ..

[Weezul]

.. but I'm just advocating that all news sources discuss the latest apple releases together with the latest tween toy trends.

For example, you really needed to contemplate the iPad together with vajazzling if you hoped to comprehend either. I assure you that Apple's engineers were intently involved with bedazzling their phones while designing the iPad, just like the vajazzling developers.

Re:Don't let reality get in the way of your anger

[TheRecklessWanderer]

Well I'm sure that the kids using the mac will have a great future in the corporate world. I mean, they will be able to say, "Would you like iFries with that?

Re:iNelson

[Anonymous Coward]

Ugh, your wrong!

My wrong?

Re:My two cents

[Anonymous Coward]

And what of those students who are going into liberal arts?

What platform is required to file for unemployment benefits?

Re:iNelson

[guyminuslife]

No, it's whatever Steve Jobs says it is [youtube.com].

Re:iNelson

[Hognoxious]

My wrong?

Hi's bad.

Re:iNelson

[Hognoxious]

Or, the US could take a queue from Australia

Must be good if people are lining up across the Pacific to get it.