Dear Editors of the Piedmont Highlander,

There is a new school policy that states students must bring school-issued Chromebooks to class instead of personal computers. This frustrated me at first, but after reflecting on my habits at school, I have decided to support this policy.

Per my family’s tradition, I was given a MacBook at the start of freshman year. At first, I saw this as a glorious gift, but then the terms and conditions were announced: this computer must last until the end of high school. Easy–or so I thought.

I fling my backpack beside my desk when I sit down for class. Later, I hold onto it tightly as people knock into me in the crowded breezeway. At lunch, I often use it as a seat. When my backpack gets beaten up, so do its contents. When I brought my MacBook to school last year, it received scratches and a slight dent from hurried exits out of classrooms and accidental slips of binders out of my hands onto the keyboard.

Yet my chromebook has survived the hustle and bustle of my life without a scratch. Built to be durable, it has fulfilled the promise. I can still use my backpack as I please and not worry about damaging the computer.

Every Monday morning I cram three binders and three notebooks into my backpack. My North Face is only so big, so I am tight on space for my English books, pencil case and computer. A Macbook adds 4.02 lbs to my bulging backpack. With a chromebook, roughly 2.97 lbs are added, making for a lighter load and a more comfortable day.

During the first week of school, I clicked to open a new tab on my chromebook to start my favorite way to pass class time – playing the computer game 2048 – only to discover that the site had been blocked. When I brought my Macbook to school, I could play games, shop for new shoes, and text my friends without a teacher noticing. While I pride myself on having self discipline, all the distractions that come with having a personal computer at school are sometimes too tempting. With teacher dashboard and blocked sites on school-issued chromebooks, I am reminded that I am not at school to update my wardrobe. It saddens me that I need what seem like parental controls to stay on task during school, but that is the reality for most students at Piedmont High School.

Teachers constantly remind students that education is important because it prepares us for the future. Sometimes I question that when I am learning how to calculate residuals in math class, but the new chromebook policy reaffirms my belief in that statement. I think about my future job at a company that has certain rules. Whether I support them or not, I must follow them, and I suspect I will learn to understand why they are enforced. Bringing my chromebook instead of a personal computer to school everyday is practice for the day my place of employment. Just like it is inappropriate to play 2048 when I am supposed to be analyzing The Bluest Eye, it is unprofessional to shop for shoes when I am doing desk work at my first job in five years.

Sincerely,

Margaret Faust