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Don Y[_3_]

On 2/20/2016 2:13 PM, wrote:

When I first started doing this, I naively expected the users to be
somewhat competent and protective of their machine (freebie!).
I quickly discovered that they were not! Machines would come back
within a month, "broken": "I don't know what happened. It just
stopped working!"

The secret is NOBODY gets a "free" computer.
Make them put some effort into getting one.- even if it's a dollar and
acheiving a scholastic goal, or X hours of "community service".
Something they can afford - but something that equates to some
effort/sacrifice on their part. Then things get taken care of.

Something that has no cost has no value to many people.

The "cost" is continued attendance and good performance at
school. They are graded monthly -- far more frequently
than "regular students". And, in addition to grades, they
have to evoke recommendations from EACH of their teachers.
**** off one and you risk being expelled from the program.

(which also provides food and housing assistance)

Granted, folks are usually hard pressed to relate the two
in their minds -- humans are notoriously ineffective at
coupling even trivially disjointed causes and effects.

The cost *I* chose to impose (to protect my time/effort) was
the risk of losing all of "their files" when/if they screwed
up the machine (by unsafe practices, etc.). I.e., I'll
give you a way to "fix" your machine -- but it will COST you
those things that *you* apparently valued (valued enough
to download, install, etc).

Of course, the agency could adopt a different policy. But,
as I'm not an employee, I wouldn't be obligated to *implement*
it!

(and, my reasoning is reasonably convincing -- not "arbitrary".
After all, these kids will eventually have to deal with The
Real World; there are few Mulligans, there!)