[Edu-sig] Low Enrollments

[Kirby Urner]

> To the extent that the CS departments have allowed, and continue to allow,
> themselves to be company towns for the major industry players, they
> deserve what they get.  And if what they get is a lack of interest, maybe 
> that is saying something optimistic about who our kids are today.
> 
> Art

Vilification of Microsoft is one way to go, certainly.  Not an especially
original approach.

As I sometimes think of you as an investor, I'm somewhat surprised that your
alternative to "bad companies" is "no companies" i.e. "because some
companies exert a negative influence in the classroom, classrooms should be
company-free zones."  

There's a leap in logic there, which a capitalist should not miss:  why not
just go with other companies?  Why not make schools freer to choose
collaborator firms, by ending any kind of top-down "district wide" or "state
wide" sweetheart wheeling and dealing?  That'd be a reform in the government
sector, which a governor might get behind and even get re-elected on (people
get suspicious of large bureaucracies with good reason).

Like, a board made up of Franklin High's teachers, parents, and principal,
might make a deal with Naked Ape, part of the POSSE here in Portland [1], to
supplement Franklin High's Scheme training (already well-known and prized)
with some Perl training (one of Naked Ape's specialties).  

Maybe a certified union teacher supervises the guest trainer, or maybe a
trainer is on part time payroll in a charter school, with more lenient
certification requirements, and is supervised by the principal.  Or maybe
the training is just for faculty (teacher in-service), and they pass their
new knowledge on to their students (a well-known design pattern).

As a small business with an interest in education, I have no problem walking
into a local school and putting my spin on things, as any parent would.
I'll openly talk up relevant community-based NGOs (e.g. Free Geek's Build
Program), but I'll also share history.  We're proud of our Oregon pioneers:
Tek, HP, ESI...  ISEPP/Wanderers wouldn't exist in its present shape without
Mentor Graphics.  Saturday Academy: another Silicon Forest creature and
valued institution within our ecosystem.

In my typical classroom gig, I'll talk about my adventures with Design
Science Toys and StrangeAttractors (I used Python to develop the packaging).
I talk up this or that Linux distro as being more user friendly and/or
intelligently designed (some distros come from for-profit companies, with
stock and everything).  

Maybe I'll mention my contract with Lawson and Associates, to do renderings
of Flextegrity (another Python project, shared about here).

And yes, I expect to talk about Microsoft technology, in the form of
IronPython, plus share my high opinion of where .NET and Mono are going.
I'm considering diving into IronPython with this group of 8th graders, maybe
in 2006, even as I talk up Linux as a kick ass developers' platform.
IronPython also runs on Linux.

Kirby

PS:  Notice all this autobio.  Makes more sense because yes, we really do
have a Franklin High that teaches Scheme, a Naked Ape, Flextegrity.

[1] http://www.possepdx.com/