[Grassroots-l] OLPC USA

[Edward Cherlin]

Wayan Vota made a good point today in OLPC America Needed in
Birmingham Pilot and Illinois Debate,
http://www.olpcnews.com/people/leadership/olpc_america_action_needed.html.
I had almost forgotten about OLPC America. I'm inclined to doubt that
it exists, on the evidence I have seen. (Of the 21,300 hits on Google
for it, the top item is my Wiki entry quoting the announcement,
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_America. Nobody at OLPC has added
anything to it, not even the names of the director and chairman whose
existence was announced.) I would be happy to be proved wrong, of
course.

Even if OLPC America exists, it is doing precisely nothing. So why
don't we start our own OLPC USA and get things moving?

My father had to organize 50-state licensing for his company, for
insurance policies, so I have some idea of what's needed. Getting XOs
into 50 state education systems, or into numerous local systems while
we work on the states, is a bit more complicated. We have to track the
legislatures, the administrations, and the education system state by
state.

We also need a way to explain the XO properly to the prospects. Kids
get it immediately, but parents, teachers, administrators,
politicians, and other stakeholders who may have forgotten how it was
when they were children will need our help to rediscover discovery.
Then we have to get their attention.

So my question to you is, rather than wait for Somebody Else to do it,
are you willing to take some time to assure your children's future?
Wait, what am I saying? What else do parents do? Let's try that again.
Are you willing to work to get XOs into schools instead of something
else you are currently doing, on the theory that it will have a bigger
effect on your children's future? Don't answer right away unless you
have already showed some children an XO, and then asked them how XOs
in school would affect their lives.
-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay