C M Y K A11
DAILY 03-09-10 MD SU A11 CMYK
TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010
KLMNO S
From Page One
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Professors pull the plug on laptops
Zabul feels the effects
laptops from A1
of Afghan numbers game
the Washington region to ban lap- afghanistan from A1 tricts, which “allayed the local
tops, in the 2006-07 academic leaders’ concern,” said one U.S. of-
year. He found them an “attrac- military planner in Kabul. ficial. Brig. Gen. Frederick B.
tive nuisance.” It was a bold de- Of the 364 districts in the coun- Hodges, director of operations for
cree: Georgetown had only re- try, NATO considers 80 of them a southern Afghanistan, said the
cently begun requiring that first- priority, he said. They form a battalion’s rapid withdrawal, to
year law students own laptops, af- patchwork that roughly corre- beat the winter snows, should
ter painstakingly upgrading the sponds to the circle formed by the have been better explained.
campus for wireless Internet ac- “ring road,” or Highway 1, which “I personally failed to fully ap-
cess. hits the country’s biggest cities, preciate the psychological impact
Just last week, a colleague of including Kabul, Kandahar, Ma- in moving forces away from there
Cole’s unwittingly demonstrated zar-e Sharif and Herat. over toward Helmand,” he said.
how thoroughly the Internet has The road also bisects the prov- “But if you ever want to concen-
colonized the classroom. When ince of Zabul, but for the most trate somewhere, you have to take
Professor Peter Tague told stu- part U.S. troops have shifted their from somewhere else.”
dents a canard about Supreme attention elsewhere. Late last Hodges said additional Special
Court Chief Justice John G. Rob- year, commanders transferred a Forces were sent to Zabul to shore
erts Jr. stepping down, students battalion of U.S. soldiers with the up Afghan police and army out-
promptly spread the news into 5th Stryker Brigade Combat posts near the Pakistani border.
the blogosphere. Later in class, Team from Zabul to Helmand to In addition to the U.S. troops that
Tague revealed that the tip was patrol key roads and prepare to remain, there are about 800 Ro-
false, part of a lesson on credibil- help in the offensive on Marja. manian soldiers, who patrol
ity, according to the blog Above That reduced the U.S. presence in Highway 1, and a Jordanian spe-
the Law. Zabul from approximately 1,800 cial operations unit in the prov-
The laptop computer, intro- troops to 1,000, in a province that ince.
duced in 1981, has become nearly is home to 300,000 people, U.S. Zabul has long been one of Af-
obligatory on campus; some col- military officials say. ghanistan’s poorest and most un-
leges require them. They are as es- With Zabul’s population sprin- derdeveloped corners — the Af-
sential to today’s student as a kled in about 2,500 remote villag- ghan equivalent of “central Ne-
working stereo system was to es, U.S. military officials argue vada,” Veres said.
their parents. that protecting the people is not There is one paved road. No
“My laptop lives with me. I’m only exceedingly difficult but also sewer system. The only electricity
always on it,” said Madeline Two- peripheral to a new American apart from generators comes
mey, 20, a George Washington strategy in Afghanistan, which fo- from a USAID-funded power
junior. cuses on protecting more densely plant that serves about 60 per-
Twomey has used a computer populated areas. But the move to cent of the residents in the pro-
since age 6 and had her first lap- pull out the Stryker battalion has vincial capital of Qalat for a quar-
top at 15. She senses a widening left the weak and underfunded ter of the day. Of more than 100
generation gap. “Most professors, provincial government increas- schools on the books, no more
even at their youngest, they’re in ingly concerned about battling than about 25 offer classes.
their 30s,” she said. “They don’t the Taliban. Before Naseri became governor
understand how much it’s be- The provincial governor, Alhaj last year, he held the same post in
come a part of our lives.” M. Ashraf Naseri, said that about Badghis province, in northwest-
2,000 Taliban fighters, operating ern Afghanistan, and taught ge-
The ‘cone of distraction’
in more than 100 groups, use mo- ography at Kabul University. The
Professors say they do under- torbikes to crisscross his province United Nations recently hired 10
stand — all too well. at will. One of the 11 districts, advisers to augment his five-man
Diane E. Sieber, an associate
BILL O’LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST
Khak-e-Afghan, has been aban- office, although two of them left.
professor of humanities at the David Cole of Georgetown Law was among the first professors in the Washington region to ban laptops doned to the Taliban by both Eighty percent of the slated jobs
University of Colorado at Boulder, for most of his students. A few are selected to use them to take notes, which others may then borrow. NATO and Afghan troops. in his office remain unfilled.
has debated her students on the “This is the main gateway for Naseri has survived two close
collegiate conceit of multitasking, on technology discourages. “I think that a professor’s well online in class. the Taliban,” Naseri said. “Why calls with bombings, and much of
the notion that today’s youths can Cole surveyed one of his within reason to ban laptops,” Plenty of professors still allow are they neglecting Zabul?” his work takes place in an office
fully attend to a lecture while in- Georgetown classes anonymously said Cristina Cardenal, a 20-year- laptops. Siva Vaidhyanathan, an Naseri helped lead the effort to adjoined to a U.S. base. But some
termittently toggling over to e- after six weeks of laptop-free lec- old Georgetown junior. “Profes- associate professor of media stud- persuade NATO commanders to U.S. officials think Naseri is not as
mail, ESPN and Facebook. tures. Four-fifths said they were sors aren’t stupid. They know ies and law at U-Va., generally per- revise plans that had called for an popular as a Taliban leader who
“It’s really serialized interrup- more engaged in class discussion. what’s going on.” She also hap- mits them in his classes. He re- even more dramatic retreat — calls himself the shadow gover-
tion,” Sieber said. “You start some- Ninety-five percent admitted that pens to believe that the rule ben- members his own college diver- consolidating the remaining nor.
thing, you stop it, you do some- they had used their laptops for efits students, who should know sion: reading newspapers troops in a tighter knot in towns The people of Zabul still come
thing else, you stop it, which is “purposes other than taking better than to “pay as much mon- surreptitiously on the floor be- and abandoning some districts. to Naseri in waves. When 16
something you’re doing if you’re notes.” ey as we do to sit in a class and neath his desk. He believes that, He and others threatened to with- bearded and turbaned men from
switching back and forth between Even when used as glorified read a blog.” ultimately, it is a professor’s job to draw the Afghan police, army and the outskirts of Qalat sat down at
World of Warcraft and my class.” typewriters, laptops can turn stu- hold the class’s attention. local governments from the out- his lacquered conference table
One recent semester, Siebert dents into witless stenographers,
Flipping a switch
“If students don’t want to pay lying districts if NATO went last week, he assured them that
tracked the grades of 17 student typing a lecture verbatim without Perhaps no college has experi- attention, the laptop is the least of through with its initial plan. Ac- “you will never be disappointed.”
laptop addicts. At the end of the listening or understanding. enced the good and bad of laptops your problems,” he said. cording to a senior U.S. military Soon, though, the conversation
term, their average grade was 71 “The breaking point for me was like Bentley University in Wal- Vaidhyanathan, an Internet official, Naseri called President deteriorated into a dispute over
percent, “almost the same as the when I asked a student to com- tham, Mass. In 1985, Bentley was scholar, senses a losing battle. In Hamid Karzai, who passed along Naseri’s promise to build a new
average for the students who ment on an issue, and he said, the first college in the nation to re- an era of iPhones and Black- his concerns to Gen. Stanley A. school in the village. The villagers
didn’t come at all.” ‘Wait a minute, I want to open my quire students to own portable Berrys, Internet-ready cellphones McChrystal, the top U.S. and said they wanted an Islamic
Sieber believes that those stu- computer,’ ” said David Gold- computers. By the late 1990s, pro- have become just as prevalent in NATO commander in Afghani- school because the Taliban would
dents, in turn, divert the attention frank, a Georgetown history pro- fessors complained of distracted classrooms as laptops, and equal- stan. not take kindly to anything else.
of the students behind them, a fessor. “And I told him, ‘I don’t students. In 2000, the college in- ly capable of distraction. If profes- This debate, as well as the ten- “Just be a man and help me build
parabolic effect she calls the “cone want to know what’s in your com- stalled a custom-designed system sors had hoped to hermetically sion it created even between U.S. the school,” the governor pleaded
of distraction.” puter. I want to know what’s in to let professors switch off Inter- seal their teaching space by ban- units with differing goals in Za- to one villager.
José A. Bowen, dean of the your head.’ ” net and e-mail access in their ning laptops, they might be about bul, rose to the level that the sec- “If you insist on coming with
Meadows School of the Arts at Some early attempts to ban lap- classrooms. They’ve flipped the three years too late. retary of the Army visited Zabul that idea,” said Mohammad Ka-
Southern Methodist University, is tops met resistance. In 2006, a switch “thousands of times,” said “The question ‘Laptop or not?’ to help hash it out. “It got pretty reem, “the village may still be
removing computers from lecture group of law students at the Uni- Bentley’s Phillip G. Knutel. isn’t as big a question as the ques- heavy,” said a senior U.S. military there, but all the people will be
halls and urging his colleagues to versity of Memphis complained to Universities have stopped short tion of a screen or not,” he said. official in Zabul. gone.”
“teach naked” — without ma- the American Bar Association, in of disabling Internet access en- “And, sitting in front of 200 stu- In response to the protest, partlowj@washpost.com
chines. Bowen says class time vain. These days, the restriction is tirely, which might create a raft of dents, I can’t really enforce a ban NATO commanders in southern
should be used for engaging dis- so common that most students new complaints from professors on anything.” Afghanistan agreed to leave small Special correspondent Javed
cussion, something that reliance take it in stride. who routinely ask students to go devised@washpost.com groups of U.S. troops in the dis- Hamdard contributed to this report.
Extension of unemployment benefits in downturn draws concern
unemployment from A1
The price of unemployment
at Georgetown University, said
that some people might take lon-
employment benefits as helpful
Millions of people are out of work, for longer and longer periods.
ger to find a new job as a result of
to the economy, or to the job mar-
The average in February was 29.7 weeks and in January 30.2
unemployment insurance exten-
ket.
weeks. Unemployment benefits, which vary from state to state
sions, but that right now it’s a
“If anything, continuing to pay needed benefit.
people unemployment compen-
but average 36 percent of the average weekly wage, are costing
“The reality is that it’s hard to
sation is a disincentive for them $10 billion a month. find a job even for people who
to seek new work,” Kyl said. “I am
11.4 million of them
really want one,” he said.
sure most of them would like
collected unemployment compensation.
But as the job market im-
work and probably have tried to
There were
proves, Swagel said, unemploy-
seek it, but you can’t argue it is a
14.9 million
ment insurance extensions must
job enhancer.”
unemployed
be pared back quickly, as they
Andrew Stettner, deputy direc-
people
have been in previous down-
tor of the National Employment
in the U.S. in February.
turns. “It’s important to let the
Law Center, says there’s a good
5.9 million of those
extensions lapse as the job mar-
reason people are out of work for
have been getting compensation
ket recovers — to avoid having
so long. There are six unem-
JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST for more than 26 weeks.*
disincentives to work once the
ployed Americans for every avail- Anthony Brown sets up an interview at the Arlington County job market is better,” Swagel said.
able job, he said. Employment Center. Unemployment remains high at 9.7 percent.
Unemployment compensation compared to average wage, weekly
Jeffrey Carlson of Grand Rap-
“The primary reason people Maximum weekly basic ids, Mich., a former insurance
are out of work so long is a lack of do that.” rity Act of 1935, intended to pro- unemployment compensation
Average weekly wage
salesman and father of six, says
jobs,” Stettner said. The checks may be meager, but vide the unemployed some por-
As of February 2010 Second quarter, 2009
he is motivated to find work, de-
The 14.9 million jobless Amer- Boyd does not know what he tion of their income while help- spite the $1,650 a month he col-
icans have been out of work an would do without them. “I de- ing the economy weather down District $359 $1,421 lects in unemployment benefits.
average of 29.7 weeks, just below pend on this money,” he said. “I’m times. Nearly two-thirds of the That money does not go far given
January’s 30.2-week average. wondering every other week if it jobless collect unemployment
Maryland
Those levels are the highest since is going to keep coming in or not. benefits, which go only to those
$410 $935
his rent, child support, utilities
and credit card bills. Carlson, 44,
the government began keeping It’s stressful, and especially when who have earned a certain said he has applied for numerous
those records in the 1950s, ac- you’re trying to look for a job, amount of money in the previous Virginia $378 $899 jobs with no luck and has spent
cording to Stettner. too.” year, and who lost their jobs $40,000 in savings.
The ranks of the unemployed States determine the amount through no fault of their own. *The maximum period for collecting basic unemployment compensation, after which workers can apply for up Carlson, who made $50,000 a
include Jerome Boyd, 48, a father of the benefits, but they average Unemployment compensation
to an additional 73 weeks of federal jobless benefits.
year before he was laid off, said
of four who lives in Arlington. He 36 percent of the average weekly is funded largely through em-
SOURCES: National Employment Law Project, Bureau of Labor Statistics TOBEY/THE WASHINGTON POST
watching Bunning and other sen-
was laid off in August from his wage, according to the National ployer taxes (a few states require ators debate whether to extend
job as a sous chef at Gaylord Na- Employment Law Center. Recipi- worker contributions). They have benefits tend to plow the money sure on a program created to pro- unemployment benefits was
tional Hotel at National Harbor. ents must look for work. Boyd been extended in previous pe- right back into the economy, vide short-term relief while peo- painful and infuriating.
He receives $1,200 a month in said he has applied for 20 jobs in riods of unusually high unem- making them “both timely and ple waited for jobs to return. “I paid into the system for 25
unemployment benefits, less the past four months but has got- ployment, then rolled back when cost-effective in spurring eco- “It is appropriate and natural years and now I need it,” he said.
than half the $3,000 a month he ten only a few calls back. He has, the rate declined. nomic activity and employment.” for Congress to extend the time “People are being put through
brought home from his job. Now however, looked only for jobs Although the availability of Today, the unemployed con- limit of unemployment insur- the emotional heartache and
he is often behind paying about that pay above the minimum long-term unemployment ben- front a changing workplace. The ance with the job market as bad anxiety of not knowing if it’s go-
$1,500 in rent, a car payment and wage. efits “could dampen people’s ef- Obama administration has tried as it is,” said James Sherk, a labor ing to keep coming. There are too
other expenses. “I’m stealing “I can’t take something that’s forts to look for work,” the Con- to address that by investing economist at the Heritage Foun- many people who need it and are
from Peter to pay Paul,” he said, minimum wage because I just gressional Budget Office said in a heavily in education, clean en- dation. “But by quadrupling it, it depending on it.”
adding: “There’s the cable, the won’t be able to pay my bills,” he February report, that concern “is ergy and scientific research, is no longer an unemployment fletcherm@washpost.com
phone bill. I owe the bank over- said. “I’d have to work three jobs less of a factor when employment which officials say will create the insurance program but a welfare hedgpethd@washpost.com
draft fees and the insurance is to pay the bills, and that doesn’t opportunities are expected to be jobs of the future. But that takes program.”
lapsing a little bit. I can’t take my make sense.” limited for some time.” time, and jobs are being lost fast- Phillip L. Swagel, a former Staff researcher Magda Jean-Louis
kids shopping for school clothes Unemployment benefits were The report went on to say that er than new kinds can be created. Treasury Department official and staff writer V. Dion Haynes
because I don’t have enough to created as part of the Social Secu- people receiving unemployment That places unprecedented pres- who is now a business professor contributed to this report.
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