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Tim Cook talks equality and human rights while receiving Lifetime Achievement Award from alma mater Auburn
Last Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook flew out to New York City, where he accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award from Auburn University, his alma mater. Cook graduated from Auburn with a degree in industrial engineering in 1982 and is an avid Auburn football fan. In his 13-minute acceptance speech, Cook devoted much of his talk to discussing equality and human rights. As a child who grew up in 1960's Alabama, Cook recounted a childhood incident which provided him his first glimpse into the "devastating impacts of discrimination." Remarkable people were denied opportunities and treated without basic human dignity, solely because of the color of their skin. And not far from where I lived, I remember very vividly witnessing a cross burning at such a remarkable family. This image was permanently imprinted in my brain and it would change my life forever. Cook also expressed pride that he found himself working at Apple, a company that he was thrilled to discover espoused values such as equality and human rights. Apple has been at the center of much controversy surrounding working conditions in its supply chain. With Tim Cook at the helm, however, Apple has taken more steps than most similarly situated companies to ensure that labor abuses are curtailed as much as possible. For this reason and many others, I was very fortunate that my life's journey took me to Apple. In addition to finding a company and a founder unlike any other, I found in Apple a company that deeply believed in advancing humanity through its products and through the equality of all of its employees. Now much has changed since my early days at Apple, but these values, which are at the very heart of our company, remain the same. These values guide us to make our products accessible for everyone. People with disabilities often find themselves in a struggle to have their human dignity acknowledged. They're frequently left in the shadows of technological advancements that are a source of empowerment and attainment for others. But Apple's engineers push back against this unacceptable reality. They go to extraordinary to make our products accessible to people various disabilities, from blindness and deafness, to various muscular disorders. I receive hundreds of emails from customers every day. I read them all. Often, they are written like one might talk to you at the dining room table at night. Last week, I received one from a single mom with a 3-year-old autistic son who was completely non-verbal. The child had recently been given an iPad, and as a result, his mother told me that for the first time in his life, he had found his voice. Cook also referenced the Employee Non-Discrimination Act, a piece of proposed legislation which prevents discrimination on account of one's sexual orientation or gender identity. Cook previously championed ENDA in a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this November. "Now is the time," Cook said, "to write these basic principles of human dignity into the book of law." The full video of Cook's speech is below and is well worth watching.
Kindergarten iPad 2 program causes rift between parents and school officials in Maine
Recently, the school board in Auburn, Maine decided to launch a pilot program which would place an iPad 2 in the hands of the district's 300 kindergarten students. While school officials hail this program as "a revolution in education," some parents are questioning this decision. Spearheaded by Tracey Levesque of Auburn, the Auburn Citizens for Responsible Education are mounting an opposition to the school board's iPad 2 program. The group questions the effect of handing iPads to children who are not ready for the technology and objects to the use of taxpayer money to fund this experimental program. Read on for more information about the objections to a program some think is the future of education.
The coolest kindergarten ever: iPad 2s for everyone
In a move that just assured kids everywhere will view Auburn, Maine's kindergartens as the coolest in the country, the local school board there has purchased iPad 2s for every kindergartner in the district. At a total cost of $200,000, including 285 iPad 2s, insurance for the devices and educational software, the Auburn program will begin as a pilot this May, with a complete rollout expected in September. The idea came to the local school board after teachers noticed an improvement in schoolchildren who used educational software on the iPad to learn the alphabet. Auburn's board hopes the iPads, which are cheaper than buying the kindergartners laptops, will help raise the literacy rate over a number of years. Interestingly, though probably unrelated, Apple's first iPad 2 commercial showed an app that allows children to trace the outline of numbers and letters in an attempt to help them learn. Let's just hope that Auburn's children don't start lower-casing their pronoun I's. [via MacNN]
ESPN 3D's fourth college football broadcast is Auburn/South Carolina
ESPN 3D will keep things rolling in week four of the college football season by featuring Auburn, again, as it hosts Steve Spurrier and South Carolina on September 25. That of course makes Auburn the first repeat on the schedule, after this weeks matchup with Clemson. Now that that's announced, we have two questions: Will all of ESPN 3D's games be on the eastern half of the country, and with an abundance of SEC speed on the field from both teams, can 3D cameras possibly hope to keep up with the action before busting into flames?
