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author | Tong Hui <tonghuix@gmail.com> | 2016-03-25 16:52:03 +0800 |
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committer | Tong Hui <tonghuix@gmail.com> | 2016-03-25 16:52:03 +0800 |
commit | 5d6f7b414de4b04ddc19629ac6d1f5e5f3cb42ac (patch) | |
tree | b7d47d7d26bf9cd76ceeae138c71d4a99c7ac662 /docs/edu-schools.md | |
download | fsfs-zh-5d6f7b414de4b04ddc19629ac6d1f5e5f3cb42ac.tar.xz |
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diff --git a/docs/edu-schools.md b/docs/edu-schools.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4fe3b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/edu-schools.md @@ -0,0 +1,136 @@ +--- +Generator: 'texi2html 1.82' +description: Untitled Document +distribution: global +keywords: Untitled Document +resource-type: document +title: Untitled Document +... + +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/).\ |