debate about Free software for the ACT Government

[James Macnicol]

> My point is that it is sad that schools (and I can't blame them
> entirely for their lack of clue) believe that it is essential to teach
> a 7 year old to use a tool that professionals use to churn out
> hundreds of pages of documentation per week.  KWord would do just fine
> for typing up text, bolding, underlining and printing something off at
> the end.

> If I had a son or daughter, I would be heavily lobbying the school
> they attended to stop burning their money and spending it on something
> useful (like a pay rise for the teachers).  BTW, there was a really
> interesting discussion on this topic recently by Cliff Stoll, one hell
> of an animated character!

    Absolutely: schools these days apparently waste a *lot* of time
and money on computer-related stuff.  I hate to think of what they have
taken out of the curriculum to make way for this stuff compared to what
they were doing ten years ago when I finished school (where the only
computer I ever used was the one with the library catalog on it...).

    Much of this is due to teachers and politicians swallowing the hype
surrounding the Internet etc.  The dotcom bubble burst long ago so perhaps
its time for some sanity on this stuff too.  In the future I predict we
will look back on this time as one where there was a lot of stupidity
about: every person and business has a web site whether they need it or
(usually) not, URLs displayed everywhere for sites nobody visits etc.



James