Now, this guy works for schools, so its not like Bill Gates coming out and saying “Hey, Apple Bad, Buy MS” or anything.  But what he IS falling prey to is that we MUST keep lowering the bar on everything.  Software has to all be the same or else how can we deal?  Shockingly, kids deal with this just fine.  If they want to.  Further, the more they DO want to, the more they DEMAND better software, the more other companies will have to respond. 
What I dislike even more about this is the subtext that we should sacrifice kids creativity to make sure they know how to handle crappy software that inhibits their creativity for the sake of…what…learning to install drivers and how you have to reboot every time after you print?
Oh self-fulfilling prophecy…thy irony is sweet…

$800 Mac Mini? I’m all set, Apple | Education IT | ZDNet.com

However, even iLife has its drawbacks in an educational setting. It simply hands so much to the students that they struggle with software (whether Windows, Linux, or even pro-level software on the Mac) that isn’t so brilliantly plug and play. Yes, iLife rocks in many ways, but the level of spoonfeeding it encourages actually makes me think twice about using it widely, especially at the high school level.

(h/t to Fireball)

I’m not saying that the only problem us our school system is the lowering of expectations, but you can’t tell me that setting the bar at this level isn’t a mistake

Wow, I didn’t realize how horribly dangerous we were.

Now, while I think that Rob Sherman (if he’s who I think he is) is using his child, I agree with his cause.

I also think that anyone who finds their faith threatened by someone believing something else, or by someone rejecting that faith, then they really don’t have a very strong faith at all.

Interesting…Islam likes to say pretty much the same thing about people who don’t believe in Allah, or worse, those who leave Islam.  Leaving Islam, apparently, damages all muslims.

What is it about ‘people of faith’ that scares them so about people who don’t buy what they bought?

Oh, right…fantasies are pretty damn hard to maintain when someone keeps saying that its all make-believe.

My thing here isn’t with the idea of home-schooling.  Its with the hands-off policies some states have.  We agree that kids should have to get at least something of an education, whether at home or in a school.  But if there’s no regulation on home-schooling, if parents just have to come in and say “We aren’t sending our kids to school, we’ll just teach them at home” then there’s no way to know if thats actually happening.  Parents could, in fact, be keeping their kids home in order to put them to work.  They could, in fact, be home-schooling them without teaching them what we as a society consider important (such as reading, and math).
A hands-off policy isn’t supportive of home-schooling.  Its the state abandoning kids.

Home-schoolers reel from California court blow – Yahoo! News

The number of students nationwide who are home-schooled is not known because 10 states are so hands-off they require no reporting at all, nor do parents always comply with reporting requirements. Estimates range from 1.1 million to 2.5 million home-schooled students, and the numbers are rising.About half the states require more than simple notification from parents or guardians, such as testing, curriculum approval, or home visits. But such rules are dwindling – either explicitly or by lax enforcement, say experts. Home-school advocates worry the California case could bring more regulation or enforcement, or both.