Re: How to raise child in Freedom/GNU/FSF tradition?

[Bernd Jendrissek]

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On Sat, Apr 06, 2002 at 10:46:27PM +0000, ichudov@ak47.algebra.com wrote:
> My son is 11 months old right now, but I am already thinking about
> how to make and keep him interested in and understanding towards free
> software. I am afraid that influence of TV culture and peer pressure
> will make him feel that sharing is stupid and that all these corporations
> are great. Any suggestions from successful parents will be appreciated.

Well, I've seen my niece (4 years old) now for the first time since she
can talk, and I've wondered about the same kind of problem: how can I
(if necessary, surreptitiously) inject a spirit of sharing and
counter-TV-culture values?

Weird thing is, she doesn't watch all that much TV.  Sunday mornings for
an hour or two, maybe.  And the occasional cartoon video.  But still she
often says things like, "You MUST NOT (rfc2119) play with xyzzy!"  I
suspect this ownership-assertion is a natural phase, in the same way that
discovering one's own will is a phase.  Whether it's genetic or cultural
I don't know, but I think it'd be *very* difficult to avoid altogether.

Is the best thing maybe just to ride out these Evil Corporate-friendly
phases, and point out how much better sharing can be?  For example, pointing
out that hide-and-seek simply *cannot* be fun if everyone plays their own
game - all the kids will end up lost in the woods, each waiting to be found.

> we have a windows box and a gnulinux box here at home. I am afraid that 
> they will only have windows/mac at all educational institutions. Am I being
> paranoid?

Yes.  Nobody believes me, but by the time your son grows up I don't think
M$ will still be around in its current form.  But if you ignore them hard
enough (get rid of the M$-box), they'll eventually go away.  Sort of a
self-fulfilling prophecy, if only more people would consider me a prophet! :)

Also not-a-parent

Bernd Jendrissek
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