User:LimitOfCalm/Why schools shouldn't block wikipedia
Unban Wikipedia!
Most of you know what Wikipedia is, but for those of you that don’t, it’s a free online website full of information. From ducks to George Washington, you can find information on anything, and anyone can contribute to it. Strangely, some people don’t like it because of the fact that anyone can change it, and others believe it to be an unreliable source. First of all, what’s wrong with the fact that anyone can help to expand it? If someone has information that’s not already on there, they should have the right to contribute it. Second, Wikipedia is mostly reliable, and the facts that aren’t can easily be deciphered by looking at the external links section of the Wikipedia article. Even though this website is very useful, it has a problem: Wikipedia has been blocked by ********* Schools.
Unless you hate Wikipedia, you are probably asking why they blocked it. First of all, the fact that it CAN have incorrect information automatically repels the school system from using it. Second, you can literally look up ANYTHING on wikipedia. However, the fact that wikipedia has a list of external links at the bottom of each page allows you to sort out fact from fiction. This can be used to teach us how to determine if a source's information is reliable or not. Also, the pages that NEED to be blocked on wikipedia should be the only ones that are blocked, not the entire website.
A lot of people, as I mentioned before, don't like Wikipedia because anyone can change it. How is that a negative feature? The answer is that it isn't. If anyone has information to change or contribute, they have the right to add it to the webstite. By blocking Wikipedia, they have taken away our freedom to contribute to the world, for it allows us to contribute what we know to the entire planet so that we can have any information we need on one single database. By blocking Wikipedia, they have taken away our freedom of speech.
Unbelievable. There's ANOTHER reason why some people don't like Wikipedia. Apparently, Wikipedia is so easy to change and to add FALSE information to that it becomes even MORE unreliable. Well guess what, people? If you didn't vandalize pages so often to see how long it takes for someone to realize that there's a mistake, THERE WOULDN'T BE ANY VANDALISM FOR WIKIPEDIA TO HAVE TO FIX IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! And anyways, the hundreds of magical moderators are always swarming around the "mystical" recent changes page to see what kind of incorrect information you are posting. Most of the time, the vandalism is immediately changed by the moderators. And if it isn't, why don't you change it yourself?
Now, back to the real situation: is it possible for us to get the ********** Schools to unban wikipedia? The answer is yes. If you try hard enough, petitions can be developed, and the understanding of the need of Wikipedia here at school can be heard by the people who decide these things! I can't think of a situation where a reasonable petition with hundreds of names on it is not considered by the people who have the power to make it happen. With the amazing structure of the website, I know that making an effort to change the fact that it is blocked would be worthwhile. That is why Wikipedia should be unblocked.
Help me fix this, people!
First, to see what this page is even for, go here. Scroll down to the persuasive essay section started by me, LimitOfCalm.
Second, if you see any embarrassing spelling errors, please correct them for me.
Third, if I left any uncensored private information, such as my school system (********), please censor them for me or correct them so they are dramatically correct.
Fourth, make suggestions on what I should or shouldn't do on the talk page. Thanks for your help!