There was actually a study conducted with real babies I believe in Canada... might have been US in the 1950's or so. They were given absolutely no nurturing at all, fed, changed, that was it. No stimulus was given. It was a terrible chapter in psychology that I remember reading about in college. It was eventually shut down after it went on far too long and the neglected children were permanently scarred from it. I can't seem to find the exact study right now, but it was a very visible and terrible result in those children. If MRI technology had been in use then I'm sure it would probably verify this study too.

So true. When I went to Cleveland to go to school I couldn't believe the story at first. Moral of that story is never eat anything from Lake Erie or the river!

I think there is something to be said for this. The only problem is do you really know what you want to do when you're 13? 14? 18? For me I didn't make my decision between a degree in Biology, or Music Education until my third semester of college when I was 19. It's a lot to ask a kid to decide the rest of their lives when they're 13. Unfortunately I watch that one happen all of the time.

I believe that students do need to have a good basis in math so that they have options open to them in the future. By not keeping those options open they have limitations that are tough to overcome. That being said, as I watched a student I admired greatly drop out of high school and decide to do his GED instead this past month - Solely because he couldn't pass the state math test... I am nodding my head at a lot of the points of this article. Most kids really don't need to do much past basic functions and statistics when they get to the real world. I know that sounds like a load of dung... but I use something on the Algebraic level a couple times a year... Maybe? At the Calculus level never. Statistics is almost a far more useable form of math so they understand things placed in front of them. I think that's ultimately what this writer is trying to get to. Not to get rid of math, but understand that it's foolish that we keep this massive hurdle up to prevent the masses from being able to move forward in their educations.

I don't know how much better this would be than a password or the pattern unlock idea... Fingerprint scanners can be fooled, and a financial incentive to do so would make it tempting for thieves anyway. I guess it'll keep the honest people honest though. It would be quicker than either of the first two in theory. I can't see apple wanting to clutter up their devices with a scanner somewhere though, this is probably just a patent grab.

Unfortunately I think the argument that Apple itself isn't responsible will probably be considered true in the end. The book publishers on the other hand can, and should, still get nailed to the wall. Charging as much for an ebook as a physical book is completely off-base. You still have to make the money back on editors, artwork, advertisement, etc., but the physical print, transportation, and storage costs should cause those books to be discounted a good amount. As it is, much of the time you can buy a print edition cheaper than an eBook version on new releases...

Apple certainly deserves some of the blame, but I just can't see the DOJ managing to make it stick against them in this case.

Originally xylophones were all wooden, and the expensive ones still are, but many are made of synthetic material now.

As a band director that teaches percussion it drives me nuts when people call a Glockenspiel (or bell set) a xylophone. I think it's caused by some of the toys that are available for little kids that are mislabeled.

If you aren't in teaching to teach, you won't last long. It's probably the most thankless job you'll find sometimes. I love what I do, and I love teaching, but if it wasn't something I loved doing I could be making a lot more money doing something else. Personally I think this is a case of a state overstepping it's bounds. At some point teachers need to have some sort of rights to have lives, and unfortunately I see a spiral continuing down from here further and further. Pretty soon we'll be back to the 1800's teachers rules...

I don't know about the poster, but personally I remember paying $500/semester for a technology fee. I definitely was paying for an internet connection at my university (along with the software library, etc.). If this had gone on there we would have literally revolted I believe... I did not go to a state university though, and somehow I doubt the OP is either. It strikes me as something a conservative private college would do.

I was up in the mountains about 7 miles away when it started... It's ridiculously dry right now, high winds, and high temps. All that's going to be possible is evacuating people. The bad thing is it's going in the opposite direction of the 2000 fire, so there's plenty of fuel. The Bandalier National park has had about half of it's area burned so far as of earlier today. Thoughts and prayers to all who are in its path.

Most superintendents tend to be teachers, turned principals, turned superintendents. In a lot of states, such as Texas where I teach, they base retirement based on the last 5 year average of salary earned... When a superintendent may make 80k-130k per year that's a pretty big incentive. That does not mean they were good teachers, and for the most part means a large gap between college and becoming a superintendent.

Overall I thought the premise of the letter rang very true.

The core teachers at the school I teach at were all issued iPads around November or December. They are stock models, the only major thing that seems to be locked down is install of applications? I'm a band director that was overlooked on it - so I'm not sure on the administrative situation there.

As far as using them in the classroom? I actually have a student who owns one and uses it around school I think more than the netbook that she was issued. I don't honestly believe they are any better/or worse than the netbook on writing papers. The Dell netbooks that our school bought last year are terrible to the point of being unusable without an external mouse. The screen on the iPad + thinness really makes it better on that point. An external bluetooth keyboard in theory could make it as useable as the netbook.

My biggest concerns about passing out iPads to kids though are the costs of replacement screens. As it is the netbooks this year have been dying at a higher rate than the first year (dropped, stepped on, etc.) The iPad 2 screens in particular are not supposed to be cheap if I remember correctly. The flip side though, is that if people would start allowing students to access their textbooks from them - and be able to annotate on them - it might be better there. Most of the time though our teachers are so locked into this curriculum system (C-SCOPE) that I don't even know how much they use their textbooks. They use a lot of materials from there that could be just as easily shared via PDF on iPads.

For me I love the device. It's great for so many things, and I love the flexibility to have music scores - and hopefully marching drill this year - on it.