It’s always nice to see mega-brand corporations give a little something back. For the most valuable company in the world, Apple, it’s only fitting that what they give back would be one of the more valued devices on the market: the first generation iPad.
Last spring after the iPad 2 was announced, first-gen iPad owners were told they could return their old tablet to an Apple retail location and it would be donated to low-income teachers working with the organization Teach For America. If you aren’t already familiar with it, Teach For America is a program that takes some of the brightest college grads in the country, gives them a quick five-week training course, and then sends them into the more impoverished districts across the country to be teachers. This is meant to help them better understand the achievement gap in the U.S.
So why Teach For America? Well, besides the fact that it’s a smart organization that has the potential to make a difference, Steve Jobs’ wife, Laurene Powell sits on the TFA board of directors, reports Fortune. We’re not sure just how many first-gen iPads Apple actually collected during the initiative, but it was enough to make sure every one of the 8,000+ TFA corps members got their very own.
Though it’s a great start, one iPad per classroom seems a bit ineffective. However, one teacher from St. Louis found that her kids would get work done more efficiently if they knew that they could play with the iPad when they finished. A pretty smart implementation of the device with just one per classroom, but hopefully they’ll be adding the iPad 2 to their collections once the rumored iPad 3 makes its debut.