Would seem to me that the solutions are. 1. Make your voice heard. As a parent your resposibility is your childs education, not the school. The school could be the vehicle you chose to fill your responsiblity but it's not the states duty. Join the PTA, go to school board meetings. Make your voice heard.
2. Volunteer to arrange volunteers to teach computers, maintain computers etc. Quite often the person teaching computers isn't a trained instructor in computer science but rather someone who was judged to be the most knowledgeable (IE they know how to set up a table in powerpoint) and with the lightest schedule. The code is open source, why not make the education open source as well. 3. Don't attack windows, attack the quality of education. This is an issue every parent will understand. Talk about the difference between understanding how a computer works vs. being a low wage data entry clerk. (a bit harsh but it will make people listen.) 4. Don't come across as a Linux bigot. Instead come across as a parent who cares about the quality and kind of education that ALL the children in the school recieve. 5. Understand that a budget is a two edged sword, cutting your spending is as deadly as over spending. (you'll get less next year either way) also note that often the budget isn't labeled "to buy computer software" it's labeled "to buy 17 copies of Windows XP, 17 copies of Office XP etc. You need to attack the school board on this one. Be careful, these are often people who are filled with self importance that exceeds even the presidents worth. 6. Visit the RedHat White paper section, grab the data on Total Cost of Ownership and write a white paper outlining the cost efficiency (not necessarily savings) of using Open Source applications, and how even though they aren't Windows they still enable a child to move throughout the world of computers easily and intuitivly. Then present it at a PTA meeting AND a school board meetin. Remembering that being an elected official isn't about being good it's about looking good, and if not doing what you suggest makes them look bad...... they will follow your lead. 7. Be prepared with hard numbers and demo's of educational Linux software in hand. (bring in that notebook) Real killer here is if you do a powerpoint style slide show on Linux. The oooohs and ahhhs will blow you away. 8. Remember your fighting FUD not fact. The only way you can do that is ..... "You know I heard the same thing, but when I did some research into this I found out that ....blah blah blah. Oh and here is where you can check it out for yourself. James On Wed, 30 Jan 2002 10:46:19 -0800 Ken Hawkins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I agree 100%!! > I work tech support at a college, and all too often I deal with people > who learned win - duh-oh-zzz > in k-12 by rote. The primary/secondary school system in our community > uses a very different configuration than our college (small community- 1 > high school, 1 college). WHen they arrive here, the usual first > complaint is " This isn't windows!" followed by "this isn't the windows > I learned in school!". If they had been properly taught basic COMPUTER > literacy, they could sit down at a Mac, windblows, or linux box, and be > productive in minutes. Instead they are taught the Gospel of Bill, by > dogmatic and brain dead instructors. > > Ken > > Jean-Christophe Berthon wrote: > > >Hello, > > > >I think that in this thread, the problem of teaching Windows at school has > >been misunderstood. I'm disagreeing that professors teach at school about a > >system of Windows or Linux or anyother. That is NOT the school matter. > >School has been made to learn students methods. Then, once the student > >arrive in the real world, he will apply all this generic method and will > >manage what ever the situation is, the systems or the tools to solve problem > >or to choose a good solution. > >Learning how to use a specific software is like learning how to solve a > >specific mathematical problem. You can throw away that lesson after as in a > >problem with different parameters (but the same method to slove) you'll NOT > >be able to solve it. > >So teaching Windows at school is a bad idea, and also teaching Linux! How to > >use Windows or Word or Linux or whatever you like should be the personal > >choice of the student for it's own (nothing to do with school!) > >After for people who don't have access to technology because of financial > >problems, the school should be delivering some optional extra Practical > >Classes, where you could go kind of freely. There, they would be able to get > >familiar with internet, with a word processing, etc. but they should be > >trying different ones, see what they would prefer... Which means also to > >have competent teachers in different systems and softwares. > > > >Jean-Christophe > > > > > > > > > > > > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > >Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? > >Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com > > > > > >
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