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When Teachers Are Obstacles To Linux In Education
jamie found this blog post up on the HeliOS Project, which brings Linux to school kids in Austin, TX. It makes very clear some of the obstacles that free software faces in the classroom. It seems a teacher came upon a student demonstrating Linux to other kids and handing out LiveCDs. The teacher confiscated the CDs and wrote an angry email to HeliOS's founder, Ken Starks: "Mr. Starks, I am sure you strongly believe in what you are doing but I cannot either support your efforts or allow them to happen in my classroom. At this point, I am not sure what you are doing is legal. No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful. ... This is a world where Windows runs on virtually every computer and putting on a carnival show for an operating system is not helping these children at all. I am sure if you contacted Microsoft, they would be more than happy to supply you with copies of an older version of Windows and that way, your computers would actually be of service to those receiving them..." Starks pens an eloquent reply, which contains a factoid I have not seen mentioned before: "The fact that you seem to believe that Microsoft is the end all and be-all is actually funny in a sad sort of way. Then again, being a good NEA member, you would spout the Union line. Microsoft has pumped tens of millions of dollars into your union. Of course you are going to 'recommend' Microsoft Windows."
Anyone else reminded of:
http://digg.com/linux_unix/Linux_Needs_Windows_To_Run
DUH! MS are known the world over for their generosity and handing out of their software for free. China and Russia have loads of Free copies available.
Mind you they might as well give vista away for free and say its a technical demo of windows versions to come.
"What none sense;"
I have to ask, was this a joke?
I along with many others tried Linux during college...
LSD, pot, Linux... ah, those crazy college days!
In the article, this hapless bint (how can we stop people like this getting near children?) says "I along with many others tried Linux during college and I assure you, the claims you make are grossly over-stated and hinge on falsehoods." I think she has got Linux confused with either (a) LSD or (b) [insert adventurous sexual practice here].
That's what I thought at first. Then I read the full letter. I have a hard time believing that someone who actually installed and tried linux in college would believe it was illegal. If the teacher thought it was some sort of install party for pirated versions of windows, well she was right in what she did and was just ignorant of the facts but then she goes on to say that she understand what linux is, to have tried and installed it.
Makes you wonder what else she tried at college illegal or otherwise ;)
I hope she told the other teachers to do the same thing.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
We don't have an IT Department in my school; It's the '"The Microsoft Way" Product Demonstration Department'.
The day I have to stop translating "computer" into "hard disc" to get them to reboot properly (and not power off the monitor) is the day they become something more than MS sales droids.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
How could she be uninformed to the point of saying that no software is free and that linux is illegal ?
Because she interned at SCO?
By the way, it was just an eee 901. O_O
Classic quote #2...."Theres no way a computer could be that small, unless you're some sort of hacker or spy".
The teacher's age is somewhere between 60-70...He's an old dude.
Hate to burst your bubble, but one links to a Karen Ciesla and the other to a Karen Kenworthy. Your google-fu needs some work, grasshopper.
Why do people insist that rhetorical questions don't need a reply? This is a rhetorical question, don't bother replying.
That is because they are searching for "free porn" and end up having to pay somehow.
I'm not insane! My mother had me tested.
This attitude is common with the older generation who aren't used to the net. "Free" rings alarm bells and this is an issue I rarely hear mention of when people talk about the problems linux has spreading.
Mentioning that problem would take up time we could spend talking about Linux's basic uselessness to the average PC user.
Now how did I end up replying to the worng article *smack*
Time for more coffee...
What if every Slashdotter that does Linux were to send a variety pack of disks of various Linux distributions to that school?
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Ironic that their website is running PHP. :)
Goatse Linux?
$10 says what she meant was one time during college when she missed a hand-in deadline, she used a tcsh shell on the school's Origin 2000 running IRIX for 5 minutes to submit her assignment to the lecturer's email inbox (having one of the computer sciences geeks show her how after she promised to go for drinks, who then prattled on for 4 hours about AT&T and BSD Licenses)
Give him some credit - this happened in America. He's not going to understand 'gratis'.
Operating under the assumption that Karen X is a real teacher in Austin, and the events described in TFA are true, I'd like to share my own thoughts on the matter.
...but then... it is Texas.
What I find incredible is that a teacher who "tried Linux in college" could be so terribly misinformed.
True, in an existential sense, no software is free... neither is love, compassion, or lunch... but.. come on.
This is little more than DMCA-induced anti-piracy terror topped with a generous portion of Post-9/11 paranoia. She's a FUD Zombie running amok.
PHP? What the hell is that? Some hacked version of .NET?
Of course mathematical formula aren't free! I patented them all last year!
My blog
Rhetorical question.
Love-15.
I agree. Especially this line: "I along with many others tried Linux during college"
I half expected her to follow up with "but I didn't inhale." ;-)
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Damn, what's his address, Monsanto will pay me at least $50 to turn this freeloader in.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
It's how society works when people aren't being a**holes.
AssertionError: len("ltruist") == 2
You do realize you just compared preference of operating systems to religions and races, right? Let's just start invoking Godwin's Law and say that the teacher is the Hitler of IT, and is starting the Linux Holocaust.
The teacher is from Texas... By default she IS unsophisticated!
Whoa whoa. Hold your horses!
This teacher is still unfamiliar with Free Beer. Let's not get her all confused by trying to tell her there's such a thing as Free Speech as well!
1337-ist?
jerk!
The new MSV alpha
Well if Linux is illegal, then why is my college using it?
Forget about colleges - everyone knows they're packed with law-disrespecting hippies anyway. Explain to them that IBM uses it. There's no good comeback to that one.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
And that is why I call public schools orphanages. Given the number of hours that a kid spends in the orphanage compared to the number of hours spent with the people we call their parents. Given how many of these kids eat 2 of the three meals they eat a day at the orphanage, it is clear who is raising our children. Whether having a state institution raising our nations children is a good thing or bad is left up to the reader to decide.
For my child, I decided it was not, although I have met many parents who's kids are likely much better off spending their time under the states care.
Last time I took out a book from the library, edited it to my satisfaction and handed it back, they didn't seem pleased :)
This guy in *IT* had never seen anything like it before. "That's so cool," he said.
Hilarious. I'm a school counselor. Yesterday the school's IT person handed me an ethernet switch and asked me how to use it.
For the faculty, using some other OS is inconceivable. Literally. Trying to explain some of this stuff to them feels just like going all the way back to teaching kids the alphabet.
Ok, so during that very same visit to the IT office, the IT person gets a phone call from head office, "somebody on your network is running ubun-2 (that's what she actually wrote). Who is it?"
I said, "I am. I brought in a laptop to use while you spend all morning trying to figure out why the one you gave me won't connect to the domain". In a situation like that you just bite your lip and be glad it's not you.
It makes you look like some sort of elitist.
You betcha! (This message brought to you by the Palin 2012 campaign)
I am officially gone from
...has my vote for the next net.bozo catchphrase.