The Mac Lab: Bronxville School's Chamber of Secrets

by Tim Delaney

Bronxville High School is not a particularly large place. In fact, by most estimates, it’s very small compared to other similar institutions. Not much goes on that hides from the public eye for very long, mainly because there is so little room in which to hide.

Imagine, then, my surprise when I was cheerfully exiting the building one Friday afternoon only to catch, out of the corner of my eye, the glimmer of something totally unexpected. A peculiar mixture of surprise, confusion, and general disbelief crept across my face as I saw in front of me the El Dorado of Bronxville School. To some it is an unattainable dream, to others it is a useful tool, but to most it is merely the stuff of legend; I assure you, however, that the Mac lab is more than just a rumor, it is a very real place.

I exaggerate, of course, the number of people who do not know of the Mac lab’s existence. I soon found out that many of my fellow students had heard of the place, and a large number even knew where it was, but it was only the students in orchestra and chorus who had actually ever set foot within that holy domain. This result is only logical, considering that the lab is geared toward musical instruction, but that is also where I take issue with the lab. Standing outside, gaping at how shiny it looks, I noticed one particular detail about the Mac computers and the mountains of gear that accompany them: they look expensive. No, they look very expensive. They look so expensive that the only possible justification for purchasing them would be if the student body made rigorous use of them, which is impossible if only orchestra and chorus students, which, while a sizeable group, but is far from matching the whole student population, are permitted to use it.

The notion that only the students in these two classes should profit from the lab is frankly ridiculous. I am not spiteful of the music department; it is clear that the lab has been used, and it has played an integral part in the instruction of students thus far this year. But even band students have yet to experience the lab. Jessica Mack, a junior in band, stated, “We haven’t used the music lab yet. I really want to use it.” Though the reason that band students have yet to pass through the doors to Mac heaven is more likely the result of the teacher’s lesson plan, it stands to reason that the cost of the Mac lab is still unjustified because 1/3 of the music programs in the high school make no use of it.

Peering inside the Mac lab once more and confirming yet again that the door was locked, I decided to seek out my own avenue of entrance into the lab. My first visit was to Bronxville School’s primary tech guru, the esteemed William McGough. However, even this man, who works so closely with our school’s tech staff and has never given teacher’s pause to trust him, has not been allowed access to the lab. When questioned on the subject, he clarified, “You need teacher supervision to access the lab.” Others, however, have somehow found their way around this rule. As Justin Romeo proudly declared, “I can use it. I got permission.” A computer lab where McGough, cybernetic overlord, cannot go but another student of negligible computer-savvy can roam free? Truly, the Mac lab operates under mysterious rules. To better understand the path one must walk to find oneself in the Mac lab, I headed to the High School Office for answers.

The Office proved of little help, merely redirecting me to the Guidance Office. It was here that I made my most starting discovery: speaking with two different guidance counselors about achieving access to the lab, I found that neither of them even knew it existed. Not only are students kept in the dark, and some teachers oblivious, but people in key administrative positions are ignorant of the lab’s very existence! The more I looked around, asking after ways to get into the lab, the more it seemed as though news of the lab was deliberately kept quiet. Make no mistake, no conspiracy exists here, but it does make perfect sense that the department in charge of the lab, Music, would rather not talk of the expensive present they received.

My search finally ended when I caught Mrs. Martin in the hallway and put the same question to her that had passed the ears of everyone else I met. It was she who revealed that if I wanted to access the Mac lab at all, I would have to go when a class was using it. She offered me a copy of the schedule so that I might plan when to make an entrance and get permission from the teacher using the lab at the time, but at this point I knew that entering the lab would be far more trouble than it would be worth. Sure, the lab has gathered fans amongst those who have used it. As Molly Warnken said of it after using it in Chorus, “The Mac lab brings out the inner child in my heart, and it smiles.” However, independent access would be transient at best. I, as an ordinary student, can only access the lab when classes are using it. However, like most students, my schedule is almost full, so to be able to find a time when I am free and the lab is in use would be a miracle in and of itself. I would then have to receive permission from the teacher in question so that I might use the lab, the ease of which would entirely depend on which teacher I had to plead with. If, by some inconceivable feat of luck, I managed to get in the Mac lab, I would still only have access for that one period, and if the teacher ended whatever project brought the classes to the lab in the first place, I would yet again be without an entrance to the Mac lab during my free time.

In short, my advice is simple: open the Mac lab to more students. If the current situation does not bother you, you are in one of three groups. You either are in music, own a Mac, or simply don’t care. For those of us without our own Mac computers, nor the desire to join a music class, nor the ability to ignore the call of the shiny new computer lab, this issue is both distressing and highly obnoxious. The students received no say in how lab access would be regulated. We were completely disenfranchised by the lab’s very creation because it allocates a very large amount of funds to a very select group of people and leaves no room for argument. The current system is unacceptable, and, frankly, insulting. Either I am untrustworthy enough to be barred from the lab, or it is assumed that because I am not in a music class I do not wish to create music of my own. The choice is yours Mac lab; open your doors or offend us all.