There are some “great parents” in Birmingham. But sadly, many are not doing their jobs. Children do better when there are parents at home teaching them strong values and monitoring their activities closely to ensure that they stay on track. These parents know when a home work assignment is missed, and when a child is falling behind, well before a poor grade appears on a report card. They are involved in their lives. They may be coaches on the ball field, teachers at Sunday school, or the scout leader. They ensure their children’s friends are good influences, and they reward positive results with more praise and affection. They not only “say” they care but they show it every day.

The sad reality is that many kids in the Birmingham system are not getting that kind of support from home, and it’s a much more difficult journey without it.

I think that you have to keep the conversation active, which you have. The solution is there, at least the suggestion of one. That’s more important for this conversation than anything else as it continues. Talking it through will help bring the solution to light.

Making sure that the students know how to use them is important, though I’d be quick to point out that most children could run circles around most of us web users if given the opportunity That said, the ability to make sure they’re comfortable with them and that they don’t become a distraction is most important.

having worked for the head of the Banner implementation team (and under the chair of a faculty grant committee for experimental tech) at auburn university, i’vc witnessed a fair amount of due diligence-style hand-wringing amongst those who have to explain how adopting a technology will benefit a program academically. i would hope for at least a modicum of that process in this instance as well. yes, there is less at stake financially (up front), but what is the instructional goal?

i’m not arguing that there is no benefit in the city schools’ case; i’m just wondering whether the notion of providing laptops to a rigor-starved system has received any attention beyond the PR stage. if so, surely the curricular implementation plan(s) would be made public before the first laptop ever arrives. that, too, would be good PR.

my only reluctance in posting this kind of comment is that it offers no solution. comments like dystopos’ (with which i obviously agree) and mine are great fodder for the ‘do something’ crowd. i don’t want to be a curmudgeon.

ideas like this, though, need criticism and review, and lots of it. much is at stake. most people who read the forlorn editorials on this subject (*raising hand*) give it a head shake and a ‘tsk,’ then forget about it as soon as they fold their newspapers. op-ed readers, as a demo, don’t send their kids to bham city schools. so how to generate real hands-on concern among the larger community? i dunno.

more talk=more interest, so i suppose this is a first step for me.