By: Andrew Cullen ’14 | Staff Writer

Technology is nearly inescapable in this world. Computers, cell phones and all kinds of other gadgets are incorporated into our lives. Besides being great for entertainment, these things are fantastic for learning. It would make sense, then, for a school like Grosse Pointe South to have the latest and greatest of these things. After all, it would be a little embarrassing for one of the supposed “Best High Schools” in Michigan to have a technology handicap. This school is in dire need of the technology bond.

Honestly, I have seen my ninety-something year old great grandmother do things faster than the computers in this school. I am in a computer programming class this year. On the first day of school, everyone took their seats and turned on the sorry excuses for computers in the lab. I am not joking when I say it took 30 minutes for them to boot up. I could have written an impromptu essay in a shorter amount of time. Not to mention it takes a full minute and a half for the C++ compiler to load when we try to open them.

Speaking of computer programming, did you know we are using a version of C++ that was made in 1992? The compiler we use was created four years before I was even in existence. I tried installing it on my own laptop, and it wouldn’t work, because that’s just how old it is. The error message might as well have said, “This thing is so ancient, I don’t even know what to do with it.”

Learning is much different than it used to be. There are different skills needed in the world than there were 30 years ago. The ability to manipulate and use technology is among these skills. High school has us under the constant promise of “preparing us for the real world”. How on earth can we be prepared for this modern world if we are using technology from 2001? The computers and laptops in this school use the Windows XP operating system.  Microsoft has announced that it will end support for this operating system in 2014. That basically means Microsoft will stop releasing updates for it because it is not widely used anymore. It is December. 2014 is only a few weeks away.

When support for Windows XP stops, we might as well be toast. The school computers will no longer receive bug fixes or security updates. It would be just a little tragic if some bored computer hacker decided to steal everyone’s passwords and crash the school server, wouldn’t it?

It’s about time this place got an upgrade. The fact that the building is a historical landmark doesn’t mean the computers have to be too. There are smartphones out there with faster processors than the desktops here. We can either catch up with the rest of the world or be left in the dust.