Opening doors for our children
I’m not a parent, heaven forbid. But I do recognise the immense value of education, both in terms of its worth and its cost. Richard Stallman’s article on ‘Why schools should exclusively use free software‘ struck something of a chord with me. With education in this country in a not-so-perfect state, and there not being a whole lot of cash around, increasing the use of free software is, I think, an important step we should be taking. Other European governments are taking the lead; it’s time we caught up and got ahead, I feel.
For those of us living in the UK, there’s some simple steps we can take, like writing to our MPs and the Secretary of State:
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families
Sanctuary Buildings
Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BT
A simple letter asking why the minister is not instructing schools to use free software when it costs nothing, can be run on older hardware better (thus reducing cost further) and when companies like Dell are openly supporting it, and when the French government are using it, might get us nowhere. Conversely, of course, it could start a little pebble rolling at the top of a very large mountain.
