From owner-freebsd-chat Sun Aug 10 22:18:51 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id WAA12402 for chat-outgoing; Sun, 10 Aug 1997 22:18:51 -0700 (PDT) Received: from earth.mat.net (root@earth.mat.net [206.246.122.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id WAA12395; Sun, 10 Aug 1997 22:18:48 -0700 (PDT) Received: from Journey2.mat.net (journey2.mat.net [206.246.122.116]) by earth.mat.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id BAA22105; Mon, 11 Aug 1997 01:18:44 -0400 Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 01:19:02 -0400 (EDT) From: Chuck Robey X-Sender: chuckr@Journey2.mat.net To: "Jonathan M. Bresler" cc: andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu, hoek@hwcn.org, softweyr@xmission.com, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FTC regulating use of registrations In-Reply-To: <199708102159.OAA18118@hub.freebsd.org> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Sun, 10 Aug 1997, Jonathan M. Bresler wrote: > from what i have heard the california and texas school boards > buy so many school books that publishers write for those two > markets and let everyone else select whichever one of he two > they prefer ;) I was off working on an academic project, but I want to get a comment in on that. The big publishers don't sell schoolbooks to you, they sell them to the school districts. That idea that they can't specialize, because their market was too big, was something I believed too, until I had to do some software for the printing industry. I found (to my shock) that it isn't anywhere near that way. I have been told by a schoolbook editor that some of the compromises they are forced to make, to sell to some markets, are fairly repugnant to them, but a buck is a buck ... I don't trust state school boards as far as I can throw them, but making the decision local magnifies that problem. I have met too many biased folks, I guess. There are a lot of them. Many are biased in a way you don't think of, those who can't allow the disciplining of troublemakers, because it isn't "fair". This is the cause of many school problems, just as many as the more popular idea of what prejudice is, that of race/creed/color. The best idea I've found is to put the decisions at the highest possible level, so it has the greatest publicity. It's a horrible method, but I don't see a better one. School vouchers push this decision level to it's lowest level, and makes for less visibility of abuse. Trust White parents? Look, I'm white, but I've seen that prejudice is a pretty equal opportunity employer. ----------------------------+----------------------------------------------- Chuck Robey | Interests include any kind of voice or data chuckr@eng.umd.edu | communications topic, C programming, and Unix. 213 Lakeside Drive Apt T-1 | Greenbelt, MD 20770 | I run Journey2 and picnic, both FreeBSD (301) 220-2114 | version 3.0 current -- and great FUN! ----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------