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Followup To "When Teachers Are Obstacles To Linux"
An couple of anonymous readers wrote in to let us know about a followup to last Wednesday's story of the teacher who didn't believe in free software. The Linux advocate who posted the original piece has cooled off and graciously apologized for going off half-cocked (even though the teacher had done the same), and provided a little more background which, while not excusing the teacher's ignorance, does make her actions somewhat more understandable. Ken Starks has talked with the teacher, who has received a crash education in technology over the last few days — Starks is installing Linux on her computer tomorrow. He retracts his insinuations about Microsoft money and the NEA. All in all he demonstrates what a little honest communication can do, a lesson that all of us who advocate for free software can take to heart. "The student did get his Linux disks back after the class. The lad was being disruptive, but that wasn't mentioned. Neither was the obvious fact that when she saw a gaggle of giggling 8th grade boys gathered around a laptop, the last thing she expected to see on that screen was a spinning cube. She didn't know what was on those disks he was handing out. It could have been porn, viral .exe's...any number of things for all she knew. When she heard that an adult had given him some of the disks to hand out, her spidey-senses started tingling. Coupled with the fact that she truly was ignorant of honest-to-goodness free software, and you have some fairly impressive conclusion-jumping. In a couple of ways, I am guilty of it too."
There was a lot of unnecessary foaming at the mouth from both sides about this.
Though the teacher grossly over-reacted, why don't some people understand that, especially at the lower grade levels, teachers have to teach to the standards? Sure, in a perfect world kids would have exposure to a variety of platforms in school but teachers have to see to it that their students stay on topic using the class materials, otherwise too many disctactions will arise and that'll make things harder for the teacher to do their job. One shouldn't show up to a guitar class handing out trumpets to everybody and then expect the teacher to teach to both the guitar and the trumpet. As I said above, teachers usually aren't censoring for its own sake, they just don't want distractions.
And call me old-fashioned(and I'm mid-20's), but what the hell is a middle-schooler doing with a laptop at school and why would it have been okay for the student to break out a laptop in class if it were running windows? When I was in high school things like cell phones, cameras, pagers, and especially laptops were considered contraband!
My boys go to high school near Austin (not in AISD) and they aren't allowed to bring laptops to school. There is some softening in progress though because some classes are going to have to allow it.
Athiesm is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.
In Henrico County, Virginia, the school system supplies laptops to all middle school and high school students. They used to be MacBooks, but I think they use Dell now.
Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
Here in Portugal (a small country near Spain) the government is giving cheap laptops to all children from 7 to 18 years, for them to use during classes and work at home. On the other hand we have one of the worst education levels of Europe. Yes, something is wrong here.
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for some reason using a laptop makes him stand out in a negative way but his blue hair was acceptable to him...still has me confused on that one
Anyone can dye their hair blue, but only retards carry laptops at school.
You may as well say that you wonder why they aren't required to take classes in auto repair or biochemisty. They don't need it. Would it help in situations like this, sure, but I can assure you that my wife has never had one of her kindergartners ask about Linux. I think we all (and I do it myself) assume that technology should be more important to people, but I would guess that most professions feel that way.
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
Windows-only software (e.g., Photoshop)
ahem... Photoshop is NOT windows only.
500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
You could call "Karen" fairly easily, there aren't that many Karens working for AISB who teach grade 8.
..and I think you could safely eliminate the PE and Choir teachers. And those phone numbers are in NPA 512.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
What is truly sad about this is the public perception that teachers and the teacher unions are disrupting eduction. As is clearly shown here, the disruptive comes from persons who beleive they are so smart that they are not forced to be a teacher, and therefore qualified to tell the teacher what to do.
Did you even graduate from high school? Many instructors are completely incompetent and are just plain silly. I've had good instructors, too. But I had enough bad ones to lose faith in teachers in general.
First, here is a fact. Teaching a job, just like those who sit in office doing nothing more than type code on keyboard. I mean, how hard can it be type random gibberish in a keyboard? Anyone can do it, !. So the teachers first goal is keep the class moving so objectives can be taught, assessed, rethought, and year end tests passed. Do teachers do this to maximize bonuses. Duh, are we idiots, of course. Why are the automakers begging for money right now, to kep 8 figure salaries. Why do we code for any semi-legitimate business, to make the money.
And the fact is, many teachers are very bad at their jobs. Even worse, teachers are authority over children, and many turn students completely off to education. I don't know how many teachers I've had spout off things that were absolutely wrong or bullshit. Too busy assigning children pointless busy work, too busy making them hate school and education to respect the opportunity.
Second, the tools teachers use are the tools teachers use. How many geeks know how to use every OS, every IDE. How many developers know how to write software without an IDE, or can code direct in assembly. Does that make the developers idiots. I might say so, but not really as I have a inch of compassion and am not an arrogant bastard. No one is going to go into an office, give the staff new software to use, and expect management not to react. See point one. Teacher are there to teach content, not be experts at things not even experts agree on. Many serious consider Free OS invalid. In is an opinion. Considering it otherwise refers back to the arrogant bastard. ...What? There's a difference between "not being an expert on everything" and being an ignorant jackass, which it sounds like what the teacher was doing.
There are no serious experts that consider "Free OS" (?) "invalid".
Third, a classroom is necessarily a controlled environment. While it would be nice to allow kids to do whatever they want, it is not feasible. In most schools, computers are not set up as a redundant array of disposable devices, and if a computer is broken, that generally means several students are denied an education for at least a little while. While teaching *nix is a lofty goal, i wonder if the organization would be there to fix the machines before the next class came in, or if they would just say, hey it is not my problem, and i don't care if some kids loses an education.
If a student installs an OS on a school computer, it is that students' fault. If a kid is passing out Linux to friends to use on their home computers, then it is no problem. You say school is a controlled environment, but so is prison. Treat schools like a prison, and students will appreciate them like a prison. Believe it or not, you don't have to chain students down to get order.
This is a classic example of why people hate *nix. Here is a guy who is trying to help the cause, but instead has shown how clueless the cause is. Unlike Dell Foundation, who provides money to teachers to help thing, this guy just seems to attack teachers with no understanding of the context. Even now, there is no acknowledgment of the damage that has been done to the students.
No, people in general do not hate *nix and even if they did this wouldn't be a reason. Most people who know enough about *nix hate it because of some technical reason or because they want to seem anti-nerd. As for that... WHAT damage done to students, that teachers didn't do?
Only in Canada
It was called slashback. They posted (often interesting) updates and/or corrections to previous articles.
....now we have Idle
Quack, quack.
Same guy, Ken Starks. Also the same guy who tried to raise about a zillion bucks to put Tux on an Indy 500 car. I'm still torn as to whether the guy's a con artist or just fucking stupid.
Hey, I finally got my first freak! Took you long enough!
Blue hair == rebellion == cool
laptop == geeky == uncool
Hope that clears the confusion.
I am, and that is sufficient.