By now our regular viewers have surely noticed that one of our favorite topics for anxiety and dread is Apple's continually shrinking share of the education market; indeed, whenever we feel that the show needs a little extra dose of sturm und drang, nothing gets the job done quite like a quick mention of the increasingly rare School-Dwelling Macintosh, a species that's unfortunately on the endangered list until Apple figures out how to turn things around. Still, while we don't often advertise this fact because it kind of kills the mood, things in the education sector really aren't all doom and gloom. There are definitely still a few success stories for Macs in the increasingly hostile school environment-- and what few happy tales there are may be engendering others.

Take, for example, those 36,000 iBooks being distributed to every middle school student in the state of Maine. Not long ago we mentioned that Governor Angus King had been giving tours of his pet project to visiting heads of state (and creepy bestselling authors) who were interested in his ambitious plan to Macify the entire student body. Well, it looks like those tours are already starting to pay off: faithful viewer Eric Wright pointed us towards an Edinburgh Evening News article which reveals that the city of Edinburgh (in Scotland, you know) is kicking around a Maine-inspired scheme to provide laptops to every student in the city age 9 and up. Faith an' begorrah, can it be? Will Edinburgh schooltots soon know the indescribable joy that only a free, government-sponsored Mac can bring?

Well, uh, no-- probably not. For one thing, the whole plan is really just in the "Hey, Wouldn't It Be Cool If" stage, and incurable pessimists might even insist that it's not a serious proposal at all, but rather a way in which the Edinburgh councillors can justify the cost of their recent £20,000 junket to the States. Now, we personally aren't that cynical (these aren't U.S. politicians, after all), but any proposal to blow £40 million on 22,000 laptops for schoolkids is going to meet with a lot of resistance-- just ask Governor King, whose funding is still under attack, with half of the iBooks already handed out.

More importantly, though, even if the plan goes forward, there's nothing that says Edinburgh needs to copy Maine to the letter, and we can't help thinking that the city would be much more likely to shell out for 22,000 Wintels than a whole slew of iBooks à la King. Still, one can hope. And heck, if Edinburgh does wind up telling Apple to go climb a tree and instead plunks down the poundage for 22,000 Dell Inspirons, well, at least we'll have plenty more education-themed unease to add to the plot. Mmmmm, angsty!