Linux in U.S. Schools: Why the Resistance? (IT Management) [LWN.net]

Linux in U.S. Schools: Why the Resistance? (IT Management)

Posted Sep 4, 2008 20:22 UTC (Thu) by jmorris42 (subscriber, #2203)
Parent article: Linux in U.S. Schools: Why the Resistance? (IT Management)

Yes it is a symptom of a more general disfunction in the schools.

That said, down here in the LA swamps Linux in the schools is going just fine on the backend. But the desktops are the exclusive property of Dell and Microsoft and will be unless the entire education system gets upended.

First off, one must understand what the purpose of the schools are today. Hint: students are NOT a priority, they are props. The US government school system is run by and for the benefit of the teachers; more specifically the teacher's unions. Adn there is one important fact about teachers that impacts this subject: Teachers are more resistent to learning new things than almost any other groups of people one could name. The kids could care less if you loaded OO.o and taught that, but the teachers won't hear of it, even if you found a good textbook. Change Bad! Not Want!

The argument that 'the kids need to learn Windows/Office because that is what they will encounter in the real world' doesn't hold water. Unless you believe an 8th grader today will be able to find an XP machine running Office 2003 by the time they finish college and enter the workforce. All those Apple II clones kids learned on back in the 80's sure helped em get ready for Windows 95/98.

Even the large software vendors could at least be brought to ensuring Wine compatibility with just one or two large school systems going over. Remember that educational software tends to be low tech stuff, it wouldn't be a problem.

Nope, every possible issue can be addressed except resistence to change, but since teachers have an absolute veto the conversation ends before it even begins.

Who care about the wasted money? Remember this is government agencies, the people making the decision don't care, the IT people implementing it don't really care and neither do school boards unless the budget gets so tight they can't afford a new stadium they are happy to submit purchase orders to Dell for new shiny Windows boxes.

And then it gets worse. Schools get lots of technology grant money that HAS to be spent certain ways. So given an option to get in on a grant that will pay for new shiny Dells or to pass it up and spend local money to do a LTSP project with the hardware you already have, which option is the winning decision?

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Administrators

Posted Sep 4, 2008 21:21 UTC (Thu) by ncm (subscriber, #165) [Link]

Actually not. The school system is run for the benefit of the administrators, who call themselves "educators" because they don't teach. Students, teachers, schools, and buses are all props. You can derive this objectively by tracing budgets and salaries, although the teachers' union confuses matters just a little.

Administrators

Posted Sep 4, 2008 21:58 UTC (Thu) by bucky (guest, #53055) [Link]

You can also derive this by the necessity of a teacher's union in the first place, and the perverse preference of seniority over merit. No teacher would choose either unless their relationship with the administration was adversarial. These are refuges of last resort.

Linux in U.S. Schools: Why the Resistance? (IT Management)

Posted Sep 4, 2008 21:11 UTC (Thu) by johnkarp (guest, #39285) [Link]

The US government school system is run by and for the benefit of the teachers; more specifically the teacher's unions.

If thats the case, they aren't very good at it. Given how poorly teachers are paid in many areas in the US. If there's a root cause, I'd say that many communities simply don't prioritize education very highly, and are not very invested in the process. Everything else (insufficient funding, incompetent boards, ineffectual teachers) follows from that.

Linux in U.S. Schools: Why the Resistance? (IT Management)

Posted Sep 5, 2008 2:07 UTC (Fri) by allesfresser (subscriber, #216) [Link]

I'll second that in a heartbeat. People in general just don't care about education, because they don't see the connection to maintaining a civilized society. If something doesn't immediately affect their paycheck, quarterly profits, or probability of hooking up with a Desirable Object of Affection(TM), it's off their radar.

Yes, I'm a cynic.

Linux in U.S. Schools: Why the Resistance? (IT Management)

Posted Sep 5, 2008 4:33 UTC (Fri) by PO8 (guest, #41661) [Link]

When I was a boy, my school district was about the first in the US to just shut down and refuse to open back until they received adequate funding to operate. It turned out *great*, and I wish they'd do it again.

It was funny to watch people waking up to how much they wanted and needed the schools once they started to contemplate doing without them. It was a terrible ruckus in the short run. It took about two months to reopen the schools. In the long run, there was a 10 or 15 year period where the community voted huge dollars and put huge priority on the schools.

Those were the days.