[Edu-sig] The best way to predict the future...

[kirby urner]

> I think it's right to dismiss fear as a real reason; it's an easy
> scapegoat, and one that excuses failure without trying to really
> understand it.

I didn't find the kid banned from using eve a boot CD with Python yet,
but here's a later case: the physics teacher not allowed to use
VPython to teach physics.

Same reason:  fear (of open source in general).

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/2005-May/004820.html

There's a whole long thread in our archive, May 2005.

Now if you wanted to get into the subject of who plants and
deliberately fans those fears, we could, but I think other elists are
already discussing this in some detail.

If you just look at how the political game is played in the USA,
you'll see fear is a standard weapon, used almost without thinking, at
the drop of a hat.  Some of the incredulity expressed here may have to
do with a difference in hemisphere.

Tell a teacher you want to put Python on the school computer, and
she'll likely call Homeland Security.

Kirby