iBooks For Elementary?

I just heard yesterday that Jenks Public Schools provides every new student with an Apple iBook. That is absurd. Who could possibly believe that giving computers away like candy would improve our childrens' education?

Let's say that each iBook cost the school $500 and that every classroom has 20 students. That's $10,000 for every classroom! Surely there are better things we could be spending that money on...like say, teacher's salaries.

With a huge demand for qualified teachers and such a dismal supply, how are teachers not getting paid more? Apparently the iBook will engage their minds and capture their interest more than a well-trained teacher.

I know several people who would love to teach and who would do an incredible job making the classroom exciting, but after crunching the numbers decide to work elsewhere. It's just not realistic for anyone to work full-time as a k-12 teacher when they have a family to feed. Additional income from a spouse or extra job is almost always required making teaching an unwanted career by many great minds. As a result, many of our classrooms are filled with unmotivated, embittered, or disconnected teachers who rely on their "teaching tools" instead of their minds to engage our youth.

Do teachers even teach anymore? I mean, really teach? It seems that there are so many gadgets, games, programs, and videos out there that teachers are more or less organized baby sitters explaining to their students how to learn from the newest technologies. The sad thing is: they make about the same amount of money/hour as a baby-sitter.