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+1. Why Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software {#why-schools-should-exclusively-use-freesoftware .chapter}
+===================================================
+
+Educational activities (including schools) have a moral duty to teach
+only free software.
+
+All computer users ought to insist on free software: it gives users the
+freedom to control their own computers—with proprietary software, the
+program does what its owner or developer wants it to do, not what the
+user wants it to do. Free software also gives users the freedom to
+cooperate with each other, to lead an upright life. These reasons apply
+to schools as they do to everyone. However, the purpose of this article
+is to present the additional reasons that apply specifically to
+education.
+
+Free software can save schools money, but this is a secondary benefit.
+Savings are possible because free software gives schools, like other
+users, the freedom to copy and redistribute the software; the school
+system can give a copy to every school, and each school can install the
+program in all its computers, with no obligation to pay for doing so.
+
+This benefit is useful, but we firmly refuse to give it first place,
+because it is shallow compared to the important ethical issues at stake.
+Moving schools to free software is more than a way to make education a
+little “better”: it is a matter of doing good education instead of bad
+education. So let’s consider the deeper issues.
+
+Schools have a social mission: to teach students to be citizens of a
+strong, capable, independent, cooperating and free society. They should
+promote the use of free software just as they promote conservation and
+voting. By teaching students free software, they can graduate citizens
+ready to live in a free digital society. This will help society as a
+whole escape from being dominated by megacorporations.
+
+In contrast, to teach a nonfree program is implanting dependence, which
+goes counter to the schools’ social mission. Schools should never do
+this.
+
+Why, after all, do some proprietary software developers offer gratis
+copies of their nonfree programs to schools? Because they want to *use*
+the schools to implant dependence on their products, like tobacco
+companies distributing gratis cigarettes to school
+children.[(1)](#FOOT1)@firstcopyingnotice{{@footnoterule@smallskip
+Copyright © 2003, 2009, 2014 Richard Stallman\
+ {This essay was originally published on <http://gnu.org>, in 2003. This
+version is part of @fsfsthreecite}They will not give gratis copies to
+these students once they’ve graduated, nor to the companies that they go
+to work for. Once you’re dependent, you’re expected to pay, and future
+upgrades may be expensive.
+
+Free software permits students to learn how software works. Some
+students, natural-born programmers, on reaching their teens yearn to
+learn everything there is to know about their computer and its software.
+They are intensely curious to read the source code of the programs that
+they use every day.
+
+Proprietary software rejects their thirst for knowledge: it says, “The
+knowledge you want is a secret—learning is forbidden!” Proprietary
+software is the enemy of the spirit of education, so it should not be
+tolerated in a school, except as an object for reverse engineering.
+
+Free software encourages everyone to learn. The free software community
+rejects the “priesthood of technology,” which keeps the general public
+in ignorance of how technology works; we encourage students of any age
+and situation to read the source code and learn as much as they want to
+know.
+
+Schools that use free software will enable gifted programming students
+to advance. How do natural-born programmers learn to be good
+programmers? They need to read and understand real programs that people
+really use. You learn to write good, clear code by reading lots of code
+and writing lots of code. Only free software permits this.
+
+How do you learn to write code for large programs? You do that by
+writing lots of changes in existing large programs. Free Software lets
+you do this; proprietary software forbids this. Any school can offer its
+students the chance to master the craft of programming, but only if it
+is a free software school.
+
+The deepest reason for using free software in schools is for moral
+education. We expect schools to teach students basic facts and useful
+skills, but that is only part of their job. The most fundamental task of
+schools is to teach good citizenship, including the habit of helping
+others. In the area of computing, this means teaching people to share
+software. Schools, starting from nursery school, should tell their
+students, “If you bring software to school, you must share it with the
+other students. You must show the source code to the class, in case
+someone wants to learn. Therefore bringing nonfree software to class is
+not permitted, unless it is for reverse-engineering work.”
+
+Of course, the school must practice what it preaches: it should bring
+only free software to class (except objects for reverse-engineering),
+and share copies including source code with the students so they can
+copy it, take it home, and redistribute it further.
+
+Teaching the students to use free software, and to participate in the
+free software community, is a hands-on civics lesson. It also teaches
+students the role model of public service rather than that of tycoons.
+All levels of school should use free software.
+
+If you have a relationship with a school—if you are a student, a
+teacher, an employee, an administrator, a donor, or a parent—it’s
+your responsibility to campaign for the school to migrate to free
+software. If a private request doesn’t achieve the goal, raise the issue
+publicly in those communities; that is the way to make more people aware
+of the issue and find allies for the campaign.
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+### Footnotes
+
+### [(1)](#DOCF1)
+
+@raggedright RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company was fined \$15m in 2002 for
+handing out free samples of cigarettes at events attended by children.
+See
+<http://bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/features/health/tobaccotrial/usa.htm>.
+@end raggedright
+
+</div>
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+This document was generated by *tonghuix* on *March 25, 2016* using
+[*texi2html 1.82*](http://www.nongnu.org/texi2html/).\