[K12OSN] Schools and the OPM Addiction

["Terrell Prudé Jr."]

As James Kinney said, this is of course spot-on, but I have a question.

"DEHLENIB"?  I know what a bialy is, thanks to dating a New Yorker, but
what's DEHLENIB?

--TP
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R. Scott Belford wrote:
> I fear that far too often good-willed and well-intending education
> advocates fail to fully understand the extent of OPM addiction in the
> American education system.  More successful advocates have learned to
> enable the use of OPM within the schools.  They fund this addiction
> with enticing technology trinkets and strong-armed contractual
> agreements.
>
> OPM, Other People's Money, is a delight to use.  It feels so good, and
> it spends so well.  It is not to be confused with what most of us are
> left with, Money.  It is hard to come by, painful to spend, and there
> never seems to be enough of it.  When using OPM you'll take two of
> whatever, and make it a deluxe.  When using M, you clip coupons.
>
> If you would like to succeed in helping most schools and education
> systems, experience shows that they need you to facilitate their OPM
> use.  You must appreciate their appetite is voracious, and that if
> they do not use their entire hoard of OPM each year, they don't get
> more next year, as promised.  Successful vendors succeed by supplying
> schools with OPM on a consistent and reliable basis.
>
> This is where the conspiracy lies, so take it for what it is worth.
> Some vendors offer luscious, enticing hardware that everyone wants.
> Though they use some fruit as their name, they still succeed in
> getting schools to eagerly adorn themselves in their regal iJewelry.
> Understanding how important it is for the children to see their
> schools wearing only the best, the public eagerly supplies sufficient
> OPM without question.  Some is sold off to Vendors who in turn build
> more eye iJewlery.  It could be, and it does get, worse.
>
> Sometimes the OPM trade is a bit more ugly.  For those with squeamish
> stomachs, please put down your bialy.  Some Vendors have managed to
> enslave our schools in barbed chains of sophisticated contractual
> agreements.  In order to get the DEHLENIB hardware necessary to adorn
> themselves, they must commit to consecutive years wearing the same
> undergarments.  In the past they could at least change these
> undergarments or add new hardware trinkets.  Now they are
> contractually forbidden to make such hygiene changes.  This becomes
> smelly.
>
> It is true that there are some schools that are trying to Free
> themselves from this OPM addiction.  All the OPM abuse has given them
> very bad teeth, and now they need FLOSS.  They are looking for the
> kind-hearted souls out there willing to help them stay OPM Free and
> well FLOSSed. This is where many of the more benevolent among us have
> invested our passions.  However, we must appreciate that these
> recovering schools are usually the least capable of stopping the abuse
> of OPM in their districts, regardless of how noble and economical
> their story.
>
> So to you I say learn to use OPM, but find a way to ween our blinded
> and addicted schools.  Forgive them for they know not what they do.
> Instead, show them how FLOSSing can actually help them to spend their
> OPM on other things, like more counselors and educators.  While they
> too may be OPM users, perhaps they won't be.  If properly educated,
> our youth don't have to be OPM users.
>
> By reaching out to our youth and our college students in non-academic
> environments(1), they can see the benefits of FLOSSing instead of
> using OPM.  They will eventually be hired by those schools you have
> taken to lunch, intoxicated with OPM, and adorned with your own FLOSS
> filled Trinkets.  You never know when they may want to open them up
> for a little cleaning.
>
> --scott
>
> (1)http://www.youtube.com/sctinc
>
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