大学毕业后，花几年时间参加教育援助项目Teach for America， 这件事也许听起来很有趣，但实际行动起来却一场艰辛。这些来自美国顶级高等学府的应届生们仅仅接受了短短五周的培训，之后就要投身到这个国家最贫穷、最简陋的公立学校，开始他们的执教生涯。

    苹果（Apple）刚刚为这个看似不可能的项目送去了数千台iPad。

    此举是苹果公共服务项目的一部分，该项目是今年春苹果发布iPad 2时启动的。苹果号召用户将闲置的第一代iPad捐赠给低收入社区的教师们。

    现在尚不清楚苹果收集了多少台iPad，不过8月份，Teach for America项目的每一位成员，都收到了一台免费的iPad 1。他们分布在38个州，人数总计超过9,000人。

    苹果在电子邮件通知中写道：“iPad能在您的课堂中发挥什么作用？能给孩子们带来什么？现在，我们向您征集答案。”

    登记日期截止到8月31日，随后的两周， iPad分发完毕。

    凯蒂•雷明顿[明德学院（Middlebury）2010年毕业生]在周日领到了自己的iPad——一款翻新机，但看起来和新的一样。凯蒂把它带到一所位于圣路易斯市中心的中学，她在那里负责科学课程。第一天使用iPad后，她写道：“目前为止，我发现‘iPad时间’可以让他们快速完成自己的学习任务。”

    为了更好地利用这款设备，教师们也许在课堂上需要不止一台iPad。不过现在仅仅只是个开始。

    Teach for America和史蒂夫•乔布斯一家颇有渊源。乔布斯的妻子劳伦•鲍威尔是该项目的董事会成员。

    译者：项航

    Teach for America might sound like a fun way to spend a couple years after college, but it's a pretty tough gig. With just five-weeks training, recent graduates -- many from America's most elite colleges and universities -- are thrown into classrooms in some of the country's meanest, most-impoverished public schools.

    Into this improbable mix Apple (AAPL) has just added a few thousand iPads.

    It's part of a public service program Apple initiated last spring with the launch of the iPad 2. Owners of first-generation iPads who had no use for them were invited to donate the devices to teachers in low-income communities.

    It's not clear how many units Apple collected, but in August every Teach for America corps member -- more than 9,000 in 38 states -- was offered a free iPad 1.

    "What could an iPad do for your classroom and your students?" the e-mail notice read. "Well, we're asking you to help us answer this question."

    Registration ended Aug. 31, and the iPads were distributed over the past two weekends.

    Katie Remington (Middlebury '10) picked up hers -- a refurbished model that looked like new -- on Sunday and brought it to the inner-city high school in St. Louis where she runs the science department. "So far," she wrote after the first day, "I've figured out it can make them finish their work fast for 'iPad time.'"

    To make better use of the device, teachers would probably need more than one iPad per classroom. But it's a start.

    Teach for America has a connection with Apple through Steve Jobs' family. His wife, Laurene Powell, sits on its board of directors.