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User:Wxidea

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philosophy

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I am an inclusionist. For example, here's my opinion about including High Schools:

There is a educational/social benefit of having High Schools have a presence in Wikipedia.

The presence of an article, will instill a sense of pride for students and schools, and serve as a starting point for educators to teach students about encyclopedias. The presence of an article manifests the sense that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Conversely, smacking down (deleting) articles about High Schools because the secondary sources are thin (e.g., only local news, possibly offline) is a guaranteed way to turn off a future generation of Wikipedians. There are approx 25 thousand secondary (middle school and high school) schools in the U.S.[1]. This is not an unreasonable number of articles. (e.g., by comparison, Wikipedia has 908 articles on Independent universities [[1]], and 298 on local boy scout councils [[2]] -- clearly there is precedent for educational and/or youth organizations.)

The 'social benefit' argument is less persuasive for the elementary schools (e.g., 67k in the U.S.); as it's less common for elementary students to edit Wikipedia.

The process of editing an impartial article (typically guided by a teacher) about the school is a valuable lesson, and is a starting point for other student activities that involve editing (as appropriate for their age level) of Wikipedia based on verifiable resources in their school libraries.

References

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  1. ^ Public elementary and secondary schools, by type and state or jurisdiction: 1990-91, 2000-01, and 2008-09 http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=84