"Laptop pilot programs in Maine, Brazil and Cambodia, to name a few places, have demonstrated that children use technology to explore, create and share ideas with others. Yes, kids are going to play video games and sometimes download adult content, but that’s part and parcel of living in a free and open society. It’s up to parents and teachers to help children learn how to evaluate different types of content.

It will be a tragedy if your article influences other schools not to invest in technology. While other countries are investing in laptops for their students, the United States is in danger of moving backward.

We live in an information age, and it is time for the United States to infuse computing and technology into every aspect of learning.

It will be an even bigger tragedy if developing nations are influenced by our bad example, because these countries have no libraries, books are too expensive and teachers are scarce.

We need children to participate actively in their own learning. Connected, low-cost, rugged laptops are one way to do it.

Nicholas Negroponte

Cambridge, Mass., May 4, 2007

The writer, the founding director of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory, is the founder and chairman of One Laptop Per Child".