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Education IS a basic need tooEducation IS a basic need tooPosted Dec 14, 2006 15:32 UTC (Thu) by tjc (guest, #137)In reply to: Education IS a basic need too by rvfh Parent article: Playing with the OLPC
It's not a XOR, it's a AND: children need not only to eat, but also to get education.Unfortunately, economics is fundamentally XOR -- the allocation of scarce resources which have alternate uses.
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Education IS a basic need too Posted Dec 14, 2006 15:45 UTC (Thu) by vmole (guest, #111) [Link] Fortunately, neither money nor food is a scarce resource. Distribution is the hard problem...
This is NOT an XOR Posted Dec 14, 2006 16:02 UTC (Thu) by felixfix (subscriber, #242) [Link] Not that YOU said it is, but just in case it helps forestall those who bring up the subject ...
One of the big motivations for this project is to SAVE money by putting textbooks on it. Physical textbooks cost a lot to buy and to distribute, and that encourages poor countries to skimp by buying old textbooks and not very often, which are not always in the native language, and which are enough of a nuisance for kids to lug around that they are not always inclined to take them home every night. The goal here is to make distribution painless and free, and to make acquisition costs dramatically lower, not only by not having to buy physical books, but by encouraging natives to write their own textbooks. And if the kids can easily carry all their textbooks with them at all times for no additional weight, they just might use them more often. Making kids want these is vital.
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