Michael, you are correct -- we should push for just ditching the whole thing.
On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 3:56 PM, Michael Snow <wikipe...@frontier.com>wrote: > On 9/25/2013 11:33 AM, Andrew Lih wrote: > >> I'd be OK if they simply gave some space in the training materials to talk >> about public domain, free licenses and fair use. That's not likely to >> happen given who's in control of those lesson plans. >> > Because the program in question is intended for elementary schools, they > claim that the children aren't ready to handle the level of nuance and > abstract thought involved in those concepts. I might be willing to accept > that objection, but it really should be taken a step farther. At that > stage, most children aren't developmentally ready for the level of > abstraction involved in copyright, period. Neither the things it forbids > nor the things it allows. > > A second-grader who wants to draw Buzz Lightyear, because that's her > favorite cartoon character and she wants to be an astronaut, is never going > to understand that Pixar owns the rights to that character and she can't do > whatever she wants with it. ("Honey, why don't you just put away the > crayons and come play with your action figure instead?") ("Yes, I know > Grandma buys your artwork for a quarter so she can put it on her > refrigerator, but you're not allowed to give her this one.") You can tell > her what's allowed and what's not, and she may even comply, but there's no > way she will understand the reasons, in her mind they will simply be rules > that you made up. > > That's a particularly good sign that the purpose of the materials is > really propaganda and indoctrination. Regardless of whether the curriculum > is suitably "balanced", the concepts are beyond what's developmentally > appropriate to be teaching at that level. > > --Michael Snow > > > ______________________________**_________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.**org <Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> > Unsubscribe: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l>, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@**lists.wikimedia.org<wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org> > ?subject=**unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>