Let’s face it, school chromebooks are poor pieces of hardware. Every year, tests are canceled, classes are put behind by malfunctions of these hunks of plastic. So kids, every year, would ask their parent to purchase a better computer, at, of course, a more expensive price. Parents would then work their hard jobs, and save enough to get their child the proper hardware to excel their learning capabilities. This cycle worked, allowing kids to have a better opportunity to learn in class, with faster connections and a wider range of resources. Kids didn’t need them, but they sure did help. Now this cycle has been disrupted. Memorial has banned the use of personal computers, forcing every kid, even if they have better hardware, to use the hunks of plastic, which they also have to pay a separate fee for. I am unsure what the motive is, whether it is greed, or a sense of false equality, believing that putting this limiter on students capabilities will somehow make the learning environment more equal. By trying to make everything equal, school is making all the hard work the parents did to pay for the better hardware in vain. These parents worked hard in order to get their kids a better learning experience, and now the school is saying screw that, and forcing the parents to pay an additional fee. This is not okay. Change needs to happen. And it can happen here. But it needs to happen quickly, as the school year is rapidly approaching.