Stop blocking Elftown!

The school Example High has blocked the international art and literature site Elftown. This is done because the school feels that it's very bad for the students to learn how to read and write properly while learning about art and different cultures around the globe in a fun way.

Elftown may not be useful that often for school work, but it teaches written communication way better than any school is doing. It's an indisputable fact that 16 year olds who have been using Elftown for 3 years are handling written communication much better than the average adult.

The blocking also has psychological effects on the students. They are being oppressed, which in the best scenario leads to rebellion and vandalism of the principal's car. In the worst scenario they turn into indolent drones who feel that school is just a prison.

The school might think that there is "immoral" content on Elftown. It might be true depending on your views, but would you also forbid Shakespeare because of that? Shakespeare's filth is often accepted as it's a very important part of the culture. The positive effects are more important than the unlikely fact that young people's heads might explode after reading it. And when you understand that, then it should be obvious that the culture that you learn on Elftown is way more important for both future networking and for understanding of what dreams, ideas and feelings the world is going to be built on.

So please put this stupid idea of blocking Elftown in the history-books where it belongs. Stand up for teaching the students how to grow up without censorship and don't join the dark side that fights against freedom and democracy!

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Here is a letter I wrote to the principal of a blocking school 2008-02-01:
Internet Filtering, Elftown

It has come to my attention that your school is blocking access to elftown.eu. I hope this is just a mistake. Elftown is an international community for artists and writers, hosted by the computer club at Linköping University in Sweden.

I understand that the school computers should primarily
be used for school assignments, but it's also very important to give students a general interest of the rest of the world and written communication. Students doing for example a report on foreign cultures should be able to do it on Elftown where there are people in their age with similar interests.

Many of your students can't point out USA on a map, and to be frank, they write English quite badly. But after running Elftown since 2002, I know that Elftowners have greatly improved their skills, myself included.

I hope the blocking was just a mistake so I'll not write
XXX High School on
http://elftown.eu/_evil%20schools
until next week so that you have a chance to correct the broken filtering.

Feel free to ask me questions, who ever ends up handling this matter!

/Henrik Wallin, Mayor of Elftown since 2002.

(Of course don't sign it with my name if you use this letter, but you're welcome to use it in full or in parts otherwise.)

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