OT: Linux - Stop holding our kids back

[Bob Elzer]

I thought his reply was perfect, I would have berated her.

She is obvious not a good teacher, she has a prejudiced view of linux.

On one hand she says she tried it in college, and the other says it is
illegal, and there is no such thing as free software. 

Before I threaten to PURSUE CHARGES, I would do research FIRST.

Whether she is ignorant, or just one of the borg, you don't scold a student
for wanting to learn.

And she is the one that needs to learn, that this is not just a windows
world, that servers are what keep the world turning. Someone who goes on a
rant like that needs to be TAUGHT A LESSON.

LOL



-----Original Message-----
From: plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
[mailto:plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us] On Behalf Of Alex
Dean
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 7:48 AM
To: Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Re: OT: Linux - Stop holding our kids back


On Dec 9, 2008, at 12:59 PM, Stephen P Rufle wrote:

> http://digg.com/linux_unix/Linux_Stop_holding_our_kids_back
>
> Interesting article about how a teacher took away Linux disks from a 
> kid who was passing them out.

I think the poster took the wrong tone with his reply to that teacher.
Things like "you've been trained well" are just calculated to insult.  If I
were receiving a letter like that, I'd be done listening to this guy.  A
rant feels good when you write it, but it doesn't convince anyone of
anything.

The teacher he's addressing obviously not aware of open source and what it
is, but that's a pretty common thing outside of technology communities.  If
our attitude towards such people is going to be "You are obviously idiots!",
I'm afraid we aren't going to advance the goals of Free Software very
effectively.

It would have made a lot more sense to me to say "I can see why you'd be
concerned about kids passing around copies of downloaded software, since
copying things like Word is definitely illegal.  But there's a whole world
of software that doesn't work that way, and Linux is from that world.  Let
me show you how that can benefit your students..."

alex