Welcoming Another Source of Copyright Education
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 by Patrick RossToday a San Francisco-based advocacy group rolled out an educational program for our nation’s teachers on copyright and fair use. I welcome their contribution to our nation’s educational resources, even if I don’t welcome their apparent reason for doing so, namely to counter the efforts of the nonprofit charitable organization Copyright Alliance Education Foundation (CAEF).
It appears we at the CAEF have a far greater confidence in the aptitude and reasoning of America’s educators than does the Electronic Frontier Foundation. We are fully in favor of multiple resources being available to K-12 educators, and trust that teachers, administrators, librarians and media specialists will recognize quality instructional materials and will make use of them appropriately.
CAEF’s Teach-the-Teacher program was developed in conjunction with educators, and highlights the importance of fair use and the increased latitude given regarding use of creative works in the classroom. CAEF itself is advised by and partnered with educators. We assume EFF is not dismissing the hundreds of schools across the United States that have already been adopting CAEF materials.
The CAEF program directs educators to fifteen different curricula, some produced by Copyright Alliance members in partnership with educational organizations such as Scholastic and Weekly Reader, and some done by other organizations such as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization. CAEF values giving teachers options in designing their own curricula.
There is far too much animosity in the debate over creators’ rights. We would all do well not to allow that animosity to carry into our children’s classrooms. Our children are creators and are the future of our culture, and we should embrace all educational materials that empower them.
