When I was conducting research for my paper I stumbled upon an internet petition response to a US school board’s attempt to claim ownership over its students’ and teachers’ work. Can a school board copyright all student and teacher work created during and after school hours? That is exactly what one school district in Maryland has proposed. That means a kindergartener’s finger-painted drawing would belong to the school system. From what I gleamed from the wording of this policy, if a student took home something he wrote in school and edited it then technically the student would be conducting copyright infringement.The school system, however, is not worried about owning the next potential student masterpiece.
This proposal is in line with the technological change in how teachers create lesson plans. It was proposed after the school’s chair and vice chair went to Apple demonstration of teacher-created apps, according to the Education News article. The main question fueling this debate is: who owns any curricula a teacher designs while using an app on a district-owned iPad? The policy was apparently written to “protect the school system from teachers trying to sell their lesson plans online.” What precedent would this set if all school systems held ownership?
From what I understand of public schools, the school’s rationale seems unreasonable. A teacher’s lesson plan is entirely up to them to decide, and regardless of what they plan, the school is paid the same (since their funds come from public and federal money). It seems to me that the school is looking for a way to make money; if our teachers can make money with something related to school, let’s take it. This would cause a terrible new definition of teachers: not only are they public servants, who provide a service by teaching students, but they are also producers for the state.
I completely agree. This seems like intellectual theft. Regardless of age, skill level, or media, a person’s work is their own. Even though these students may not have any intentions of copyrighting their works, the school is denying them the opportunity to do so. And if a teacher wants to sell their lesson plan, I think they should have the right to do so if they created it. It is still their intellectual property, and they should have the right to do with it what they please.
I agree, there is no way that the school should take credit for students’ work no matter how small. Keep in mind people like Einstein, Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs were once in school. It would be outrageous for a school to take some sort of credit for all that those people have contributed to the world we live in. Schools don’t know what future prodigies, geniuses, or future leaders they have sitting in their kingergarden classrooms. What students create, even from a young age, shapes who they are what they will become one day. Taking credit for such is simply unfair and wrong.
The school has no right to take credit for the work of the students. I feel as if the school is taking advantage of the students because they are so young and they do not know any better. They obviously have their parents to fight for them but it is still wrong. I agree with the fact that schools do not know what the future holds for the students so it is unfair of them to take their work at such a young age, or any age.