> And I guess that if Microsoft wants to undertake a campaign to suggest > that > their business agenda and the realization of my son's potential are > cosmically related, I should, since I don't particularly admire the > organization welcome their right to spend good money to make themselves > > LOOK RIDICULOUS. > > Art >
Microsoft already has a track record. KPL is not the first move in any chess game. It's like the 45th or 46th. Look at the 'Magic School Bus' series of CD ROM titles, the encyclopedias. Yes, it's less involved with direct teaching of CS and job-related skills, but Ms. Frizzle is a recruiter nonetheless, for a way of life, an attitude towards science (embrace it, get messy). For older people, there's Microsoft University and MCSE. I'm not extolling, not trying to hype MSFT or IBM, just pointing out the obvious: given a big computer company and a huge target market of people wanting to someday be desirable as coworkers in Silicon Valley, Redmond, wherever, it's not surprising that a relationship develops. We see the same phenomenon around Google, and its sometimes clever recruiting campaigns. This design pattern is not inherently ridiculous, but can become so, especially if it's a circus recruiting for clowns. In the Middle Ages, and Renaissance, we had these guilds, offering apprenticeships, and doing obvious work in the community (blacksmiths, artisans, moneychangers and what have you). Today, kids carry laptops like musical instruments and want to learn to play them. Is school teaching this kind of music? A little, some more than others. And home internet is great. To me it's not surprising when young talents start dreaming of what they could learn if allowed to wander the halls of a computer giant -- like little Bachs yearning to hear real organ music. I realize this makes corporations sound sort of like religions in their outreaching for new lifers. And it's true. Some companies are really cultures, sometimes global in scope. They enter the public school system and form push/pull relationships with other clients of that system, setting up interesting cross-currents. That's partly why I think public school stands up well over time, perhaps best of all in urban settings. Too many of the private academies over-protect their bumpkins, in the name of some purist ideology, usually as professed by key faculty -- and so they miss a lot of what goes on in the big outside world. Life goes on without 'em. Public schools tend to be more like Grand Central, especially in a state with a big city like yours, the Empire State (not called that for nuthin'). Cosmopolis, Gotham, whatever. Kirby _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig