Re: [OS:N:] Another multiple response (Basic rights warmed up in the microwave again)

On Sat, 2003-08-16 at 09:38, Access Systems wrote:

> > What about public education? Tax supported courses? Does a high school
> > student have the right to refuse to use microsoft word format?
> 
> now this concerns me, as someone who helps an inner city school where the
> students are lucky if they have a 486 that they can borrow and few if any
> even have close to state of the art.  Many students can only access the
> internet via a public library, how can we ask or demand that these
> students use a product that costs $$$ not to mention getting computers
> into the class room and payiing for costly software when keeping the
> teachers paychecks from bouncing is major concern each week.
> 
> and while we graduate students from highschool that are as smart as any
> others they have not been exposed to the latest and greatest, maybe this
> makes them more "educated" because they are more flexible, but if they try
> to get into many colleges they are immediately confronted with proprietary
> stuff that they are forced to use that they have never seen, nor can they 
> afford, we have had very intelligent youung people have to withdrawl from 
> colleges where they had scholarships because they couldn't afford the
> proprietary technology those schools required for courses like freshman
> english,  what does having to turn in papers on Word have to do with
> knowing the English language????  why couldn't or wouldn't proffesors
> accept documents in Open Office????  
> 
> now this is a sore spot for me and one of the reasons I'm active in the
> Open Source movement
> 
> 
> Bob.  

This is another statement all together.  I could not agree with you
more.  But maybe some of my reasons are different than yours.  I do not,
myself, understand why papers are being sent in electronically anyways. 
Maybe I am a little old fashioned but I think they are called "papers"
for a reason.

And yes I think this is all a big problem with the proprietary software
being forced down the students throats because the schools have signed
contracts with M$.  I am all for high schools and colleges being
required to accept Open Office format simply because it is available on
Windows, Linux and other systems.

Johnnie



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