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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."
After confiscating the disks I called a conference with the student and that is how I came to discover you and your organization.
I am not sure what you are doing is legal. No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful.
I think it's more a mindset. I've experienced the same attitudes in school and by teachers long before Microsoft became a recognized name. It seems that many teachers still think "no pain, no gain" (or like the kid athletes said during one of the Olympics, "No pain, no Spain"). I also remember that we were not allowed inside the school during sub-zero temperatures during recess because recess is about being outside. Yep, I even remember one teacher confiscating a ball from a kid at recess (the kid told his parents who had that teacher suspended)... and not too recently my mom talked to one of the neighbour kids who was suspended from school for being late for class. It's an authoritarian attitude. Things need to be bought; if they aren't bought then it's either stolen or its communism or "socialism".
I also remember when a person from a British government copyright enforcement agency emailed the Firefox foundation to inform then that their software was being distributed and that punishments for those offenders will be forthcoming. That person had a hard time believing that software could be free (I believe this was a Slashdot story many moons ago).
Don't fake us out. If this is real just tell us which public school. Its our right to know as tax paying citizens. We'll get the rest of our information directly from the school district.
That's exactly what this situation doesn't need. With 60 comments in the thread, I've already seen two different "outings" of the teacher in question. Having hundreds of well-meaning and dozens of raving emails and phone calls targeted at the school district and the unfortunately misinformed teacher will make the Open Source movement look like children. It's the nature of massive mailing campaigns that the ones remembered are those that are over the top, and those become the characterization of the movement.
TFA says Ken Starks is going to meet with the school's superintendent and the teacher in question for some adult discussion. It's a lot less flamboyant than setting fire to copies of Windows, but it goes directly to the point of introducing Linux to the bureaucracy in professional, credible terms
Getting opensource into schools is a hard process. it took me three years before my school moved in that direction. A good stepping stone is the openeducation disc. they can still hold onto their windows installs and software and you can slowly slip the programs into the curriculum, also a great way to dstribute the software to parents for a very small overhead.
"all through my house i set up traps, it seems like the rats have a map, so now i feed the rats crack" - Donald D
>>>I then tried to explain about linux and FOSS but he had grown up with the solid idea that nothing worth having is ever free
When explaining complex concepts, it's often better to keep things as simple as possible. I would simply ask the man: "Don't charitable organizations exist to give away free tutoring to students, free food to the hungry, and other volunteer work?" "Yeah." "Well the same organizations exist in the world of computers. They give-away free software to benefit the community." I'd then leave him to think about that for awhile.
>>>The teacher confiscated the CDs and wrote an angry email to HeliOS's founder, Ken Starks:
This is the point where I would take several steps:
(1) Ask the teacher to meet with me so we can discuss why she stole the personal property of my teenager.
(2)(a) If the teacher is not cooperative, I would remind the teacher that theft is still illegal, and that she should return the CDs to my teenager, else she could be prosecuted for criminal acts. (b) Schedule a meeting with the superintendent of the school district to discuss the teacher's stubbornness.
(3)(a) If he is also uncooperative, I would stop paying school taxes to this non-free district. (b) I would then use the money saved to pay the tuition for a private school, or a neighboring public school, that does not violate a young adult's basic rights.
It's a bunch of bullshit that government schools can dictate to teens/parents what OSes they can or can not use. Or what books they can or can not read. Or... Citizens need to fight back when this kind of tyranny happens, not just "give in".
BTW:
My alma mater Elizabethtown College has turned its back on Windoze. They use Linux to run the campus-wide network and for the student labs. I would also mention that in my discussion with the close-minded teacher/superintendent. "Well if Linux is illegal, then why is my college using it?" and see what they say.
FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
You could say that, but it's not true for any Free Software. If it's GPL'd, you don't have to give away the changes for free, you only need to give the same rights you received to anyone you gave the software to. If it's pretty much any other Free Software license, you don't have to do that either.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Well, there are a lot of cognitive shortcuts people use to reason about situations like this that are applicable most of the time, but have significant exceptions.
The sticking point with free software is that people think it's too good to be true. After all, software is hard to make, why would somebody do it without being compensated? But free software developers are compensated. They are compensated in payment by their employers for solving problems. They are compensated also in terms of status in the developer community but only when they share. And here's the point they miss: status is worth money. Proverbially, you can't eat prestige; but you can dine out on it.
Look at a project like the Linux kernel. Early on contributors nothing but status, but for a few people like Linus Torvalds and Alan Cox, the magnitude of the status payoff is huge. Those kind of people can walk into any big software developer and say, "I want a job with a six figure salary and by the way I'll be spending most of my time just working on things that interest me." And they'll probably get a job. There are people who have done comparable work in closed source projects, and while they got more pay in the front end, they never get that kind of status.
It's kind of like the difference between being a rock star vs. being a guitar teacher. If you are diligent and conscientious, you can make a living as a musician by teaching. But a rock star makes a lot more money than a hard working music teacher -- after he makes it. Beforehand, it's expected he'll starve until he gets his first hit. Software is more moderate. Unknown contributors don't have to starve, because they're creating things for which people will pay good money to have exist. On the downside, being the equivalent of Elvis in the software world involves a lot less wealth.
The problem with the "no such thing as a free lunch" theory is that the assertion is much to strong. Free lunches exist under special conditions. For years free radio and television flourished. You could say recipients "paid" for the programming by watching the advertising, but using that loose standard of "payment" people who use free software "pay" the creators by enhancing their status.
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Because USA public schools do not pay enough to attract competent educators.
Honestly, most are flocking to easier or more fulfilling education avenues. Most going to school to be a teacher are wanting to be grade school teachers or college professors. Almost NONE want to be Jr High or High school teachers. The ones that are fantastic end up at private schools that pay upwards of 2X what the public schools do. Being a teacher = you're poor nowdays. This is not the 80's when they had high salaries. it's 2008 and my sister in law makes $44,500 as a teacher. And she's considered at the top of her pay-scale for the 4th grade teachers. Oh and she has to buy many supplies for her classroom because the schools cant afford to.
American public schools are a massive failure.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Excuse me, I'm an American and I understand "gratis" perfectly, thank you very much.
I also understand "vrij", "libre", "frei", "libero" and "livre".
Despite what you may have heard, we Americans are not as unsophisticated as you might think. Even those of us that are Conservatives.
Apparently this Teacher isn't the only one that needs to free her mind from stereotypes and misconceptions.
Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
That's why Eric Raymond et. al. coined the term "Open Source" back in '96 or thereabouts: because most people presume that "free" means "free as in beer," and get suspicious. But the name "open source" has its own problems, namely RMS railed against it because it doesn't address the idea of freedom.
I think we should call it "freedomware" but my idea doesn't seem to have caught on. ;-)
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
And Portuguese for free as in speech...