The origins of Computers Without Borders date back to the fall of 2010 when founder Ron Berglund saw the film Waiting for Superman in Minneapolis. Superman was an “indie” directed by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim. The film tells the story of several students from impoverished areas in Los Angeles, Washington, Harlem, the Bronx as well as an affluent corner of Silicon Valley who entered lotteries to win scarce seats at charter schools. The odds are extraordinarily long, since these charters are among the best in the country. The film’s climactic scenes reveal how the fates of its vulnerable characters are decided — in some cases by a ball plucked from a bingo cage. Guggenheim’s film illustrates some of the reasons so many urban schools in America have failed students.

 

Among other things, the schools often held onto too many bad teachers, whose labor unions protect them. The film includes footage of idle educators with their heads on tables in one of New York City’s notorious “rubber rooms,” where teachers who were suspended for incompetence or behavioral infractions spent months, or even years, awaiting hearings. Shortly after watching Waiting for Superman, Berglund traveled to Belize and brought the book version of Waiting for Superman along on the trip. He read the book on the planes and buses he took to get to Belize via Cancun, Mexico. During his lengthy Belize visit he kept kept wondering about the schools. “If the schools in America are in such bad shape, what are schools in the undeveloped world like?” he wondered. During his visit Berglund met with several school administrators, principals and teachers in San Pedro Town on Ambergris Caye. He quickly learned that computers are urgently needed in Belize.