[Edu-sig] Low Enrollments.

[Kirby Urner]

Hey Art, I actually do appreciate all the autobio and think it relevant, to
me at least.  

I thought you were some kind of financial advisor before and individual
clients and/or pension fund managers might knock on your door looking for
safe ways to grow their money, a rate of return -- but then again, who isn't
looking for such opportunities, when it comes to moneymaking.

Anyway, you still didn't grapple with my question, which I'll now direct to
some random capitalist:  if you think some companies have a negative
influence on education, is the answer to purge the education sector of all
company influence, or is the answer to free schools to be more autonomous
and savvy when it comes to picking and choosing vendors and service
providers?

As a small business person, I want to be an attractive candidate when
bidding on school-related contracts.  I don't mind competing with Microsoft,
and/or partnering with it (could go both ways in different contexts e.g.
MSFT competes with Apple, but also writes software that Apple users buy,
e.g. Office).  

Worse than Microsoft up to its usual dirty tricks would be some government
edict from on high that says thou shalt not do business with private
for-profit companies if thou art a public school.  That'd be a disaster for
me, personally, and for just about any for-profit company that produces
merchandize or curriculum materials (e.g. text book publishers like
McGraw-Hill, a former employer).

I want to encourage some uses of Python in schools, and among home-based
scholars (who may be adults as well as kids), that I'm sometimes rewarded
for demonstrating and promulgating (i.e. professing, teaching, delivering).

In microcosm, I suppose I'm not that different from Microsoft (I'm just a
lot smaller).  I want to survive in a business that interests me.  So that
brings me to a philosophical question:  what's wrong with that?  

I don't see my goal as in principle unethical.  It's what teachers have
always wanted:  to teach, to have brilliant students who make a difference
in the world, and to receive food and shelter while doing some honest work.

Kirby
4D Solutions
PDX OR USA