Never before have there been so many children and never before have so many needed the kind of education found in schoolhouses. The move from farm to city has introduced problems that go far beyond crowds of children housed in decrepit rooms with primitive tools and technology, outdated books, overworked (and poorly trained or worse) teachers. There may be no schoolroom at all, no book, no tools, no computer, no teacher. And producing the rooms, the tools, the teacher costs a lot of money. What is more, it is no longer just the Three Rs (Reading, 'Riiting, 'Rithmetic); it's also now using computer technology, whatever that may mean--but it's important. If the 3Rs give the recipient the sufficient ability to engage in the urban economy as a productive agent, they fall short too often when part of becoming productive now means being able to work with if not on a computer, to programme it, say, or even more simply, to understand what it can do, as a tool of production, not simply as a vehicle for more consumption.
The solution here is not simply provided by pointing to OpenOffice.org and the OpenDocument Format (ODF). That is a start. Proprietary solutions as such are not acceptable for so many. And if this demands a recalculation of what is in the public's interest, what is the Res Publica, and what is not, then that is a conversation that must be held.
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