Public schools making MS Office mandatory

[Timothy Pearson]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On 04/07/2016 06:14 AM, Guido Arnold wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I produced a summary of a longer debate on the German discussion
> list which addressed a lot of aspects that may be relevant to other
> European countries. Please comment here on this list or per PM. The
> text below is also available as a blog post [0].

As distasteful as I find this I think I can see why it is being done.
No government wants people coming out of its educational system that are
unfamiliar with the "basic" technology in use around the world.

How I would approach this is similar to how religion, et al. are treated
in the same schools.  Require students on technical tracks to learn how
to use (or at least become aware of) another office suite (and maybe
operating system as well), and put those touted "standardised files" to
the test switching between the two.  This could be as simple as
introducing SBCs such as the Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone Black to those
students.

In theory this should produced well rounded students who are at home in
both environments, and if piracy is properly prosecuted the student will
see the advantages of the libre environment firsthand...

- -- 
Timothy Pearson
Raptor Engineering
+1 (415) 727-8645 (direct line)
+1 (512) 690-0200 (switchboard)
http://www.raptorengineeringinc.com
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJXBor5AAoJEK+E3vEXDOFbD7gIAJjtshjOb312CL0dcFKWlWAr
M7HZj4yvsdtx3u2kZ/VcBFxav+hTEW4v1c35vI6HDRg8Q9Pe+ATwnWbVfkeWjsu5
Spe/AFdYYrETV0wyLSFza6+01UZYsbnXASu4Ms6JFoDRdQ02O5aTmRH19rx5TMdc
JWlB02GG6GmRfnHDGUQ5kUN3xhbWi2xMtqMErxMjC8XKFVPpr6vrImRC1m7SHPxH
yZa28HFtTjgwI9mL8Pv3bni1sKI5HkNqbuknmQ9M10+yeQrcAyoRHsvzGQQS3Xbh
7hQrWtDXZ9mIwtd9I3GxIqUE3cscMZe4D/xNFHFQM3UctvSMC0jKLjqS4wqTy8Q=
=L9qB
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----