Is that necessary??

It feels like technology is taking over every aspect of our lives.  I was at a meeting at the park yesterday and one of the gals didn’t have a cell phone and the looks that came across the faces of the rest of the group was definitely surprise.  Including my own.  I believe that our children are growing up in a different world and need to be brought up to speed with working on the new technology, but I also believe that it shouldn’t come with a high cost.  Let’s face it children today (I sound like I am 90) are going to learn it any way and many are given the latest and greatest at a whims notice.  I struggle when I see a first grader bring a cell phone to school, I mean really?? What on Earth does a first grader need a cell phone for?

Ok, I am slightly off topic of where I wanted to go with this.  What really started me thinking was as I was reading the paper a couple of days ago there was an article about how all high schoolers at one of the local schools would be receiving Ipads (on loan from the school of course) next year.  I was shocked and actually disgusted as I know this school recently let two teachers go for next year because of budget cuts.  Now to begin with schools in this area are small with most graduating classes being 20 or under so I know that probably less than 100 Ipads were purchases but I still wasn’t in favor of it.  The reasons given were that students need to be able to learn technology and know how to use it.  The convenience of having it at their finger tips and being taught on it in their daily life will really help them exceed.  I have to ask myself is this necessary and for starters how many students already own one? 

Money for this type of things comes through grants so technically the school isn’t out of any money but is it just me or would you like to see more grants supplied for teachers or actual books in the classroom?  If your schools were cutting teachers would you like to see grant money supplied for something like an Ipad?  Am I just being a little jealous that I didn’t get something this cool in school or old fashioned?