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

Posted Sep 5, 2008 12:11 UTC (Fri) by Xanadu (guest, #1215) [Link]

If it were education, we wouldn't be trainging to use MS Word or MS Excel, we'd be teaching how an Operating System interacts with the hardware.

[...]

The system is designed to maintain the status quo.

My Son is now in 4th grade. When he was in 2nd, one of his school projects was to make a PowerPoint Presentation about an animal of his choosing. He chose the Rock Hopper Penguin (I was coaxing him towards the Gentoo penguin, but he liked the look of the Rock Hoppers better... :-) ).

Following your logic, he learning nothing meaningful, nothing transferable, and nothing of substance. Hmmm... Well, when I open his presentation in OOo's Presenter, he was able to get back to finishing it up. I also showed him how to use The GIMP to make a couple (quick) edits to one of the pictures he wanted to use in his presentation.

So how was it a waste of his education (not that you used the word "waste", I understand). He was able to hop on my Gentoo machine, use 100% FOSS to get done what he needed to get done.

Just because they were INITIALLY teaching him to use PowerPoint, that doesn't mean that he's not learning anything.

Yes, I realize that you were talking about Computer Science in general and I'm getting some-what specific, but the point still stands; just because they are being taught to use an MS app, doesn't mean that CAN'T use something else just as efficiently.

P.S.
They are also taught to use OS-X in his school too. These days he hates using Windows. That's not from my encouragement (though, I am a bit guilty of a little bit of steering...), that's from using other things. He uses OS-X at school, Linux/KDE when he's with me, and XP when he's with his Mom. He's made his decision that he likes KDE the best with OS-X being a close second. Windows is WAY at the bottom. He's only 9 (now...).