While walking through the media center during period six lunch, some students were not just on the computers to do work. Since the holidays are quickly approaching, many students were online shopping and making holiday wish lists — instead of finishing an essay. Even in a school environment, students cannot focus on academic work due to the temptations of technology.

Students are constantly under the pressures of technology when faced with the decision to work on academics or wander the internet. As if the pressure to stay focused at home isn’t enough, should students also be granted their own laptops to be used in the classroom?

Many high schools such as Pascack Valley, Pascack Hills, and, recently, Ramapo have granted their students these ‘tools of learning.’ This half-blessing, half-curse provides each individual student with a laptop to complete assignments on, essentially creating a more technology-based classroom.

“I have a laptop of my own, so I would not want my parents to pay nor have my taxes risen just to get a personal laptop,” said junior student Andrew Nappi.

As many students want a personal laptop of their own in school, taxpayers would have to pay more money for student to be granted individual computers. A current possibility in other schools involves computers linked to the school’s network.  A computer under this system could only be used for academic purposes; no outside data would be allowed to be stored. Some students say that this caveat limits the computers’ usefulness.

“I would rather my parents just buy me a laptop that I could use at home, to keep all my stuff on, and do my schoolwork on,” said Meaghan Murray.

It is perhaps wiser for schools to keep the ways of learning like they have always been in the past. Students need not rely on the “electronic brain” of technology, but rather focus on building a strong mind to succeed in their future careers and lives.

Ultimately, many students believe that there is no need to change the way the school is running,

“If it’s not broken… there’s no need to fix the way the school is running,” remarked a member of the junior class.