---
title: "Keeping up with the profound changes in basic arithmetic"
url: https://campbell-online.com/blog/2006/08/07/keeping-up-with-the-profound-changes-in-basic-arithmetic/
description: "Responsible education reformers know that throwing money at the problems of poor schools and underperforming students doesn’t work. Sun Microsystems’ retired CEO Scott."
published: 2006-08-07
updated: 2006-08-07
---

# Keeping up with the profound changes in basic arithmetic

Published 2006-08-07

August 7, 2006 · [Instructional design](https://campbell-online.com/blog/category/instructional-design/) · [Knowledge work](https://campbell-online.com/blog/category/knowledge-work/)

Responsible education reformers know that throwing money at the problems of poor schools and underperforming students doesn’t work.

Sun Microsystems’ retired CEO Scott McNealy has a new idea: leverage the power of open-source tools and software to make high-quality instructional material available to the world’s students for free.

> “Math hasn’t changed since Isaac Newton,” declares Scott McNealy. So why, he asks, is California paying some $400 million annually to “update” grade-school textbooks?
>
> That’s just one of the practices questioned by the Sun Microsystems (nasdaq: SUNW - news - people ) chairman. And one of the problems he believes can be solved.
>
> McNealy, who handed Sun’s chief executive reins to Jonathan Schwartz earlier this year, is now applying his know-how to steer the Global Education and Learning Community (GELC). That’s a non-profit entity, spun off from Sun in January, which aims to make open-source software available to the world’s kids for free–just as Sun sought to distribute its Solaris operating system (OS) and other wares to businesses, for profit.

[Sun’s McNealy Leads Non-Profit Open-Source Drive - Forbes.com](http://www.forbes.com/2006/08/04/sun-mcnealy-education-cx_gl_0804autofacescan02.html)

Related: [Global Education and Learning Community (GELC)](https://edu-gelc.dev.java.net/)

(Also posted at [enrevanche](http://enrevanche.blogspot.com/2006/08/keeping-up-with-profound-changes-in.html))

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