No textbooks in elementary school???

[Anonymous]

St Mary’s does but seem to provide textbooks that students can actually bring home, at least not in elementary grades.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been in school. Is this a new thing/trend (not to provide textbooks that students can bring home)?? Or is this just a St Mary’s thing? Or a money-saving thing? It’s very odd to me.

[Anonymous]

Textbooks are dated. Parents struggle with it. No problem for kids. My kids are in T20 colleges...almost no textbooks.

[Anonymous]

Mine were in public school but no, no textbooks.

[Anonymous]

Our independent school uses textbooks in the classroom but the kids don't bring them home.

They bring home workbooks, paperbacks for English, paper assignment packets or instructions, and starting in MS they also have ipads with e-textbooks.

[Anonymous]

Public schools in NoVA all seem to have abandoned paper textbooks instead they have Chromebooks. I wish they would bring back the paper textbooks.

[Anonymous]

Both of my kids' private schools use textbooks.

[Anonymous]

Having them to use in the classroom is a step up from most schools today.

[Anonymous]

Our kids’ private has workbooks but no textbooks. It makes me crazy. I asked DD to bring home her math textbook and she asked me what that meant.

On the bright side, I can put to rest recurring worries that I’ve had since 2nd grade revolving around leaving a key textbook at school and not being able to do my HW.

[Anonymous]

Our private ES has math, language and geography textbooks and workbooks that come home as needed for homework assignments and test prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:St Mary’s does but seem to provide textbooks that students can actually bring home, at least not in elementary grades.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been in school. Is this a new thing/trend (not to provide textbooks that students can bring home)?? Or is this just a St Mary’s thing? Or a money-saving thing? It’s very odd to me.

What grade? My DC at BSSM (if that is the same St Mary’s, meaning the one in Alexandria), has textbooks and/or workbooks for every class. DC is in the middle school and has always had textbooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St Mary’s does but seem to provide textbooks that students can actually bring home, at least not in elementary grades.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been in school. Is this a new thing/trend (not to provide textbooks that students can bring home)?? Or is this just a St Mary’s thing? Or a money-saving thing? It’s very odd to me.

What grade? My DC at BSSM (if that is the same St Mary’s, meaning the one in Alexandria), has textbooks and/or workbooks for every class. DC is in the middle school and has always had textbooks.

PP here: to clarify DC brings home the textbooks on a regular basis. Are you certain your child cannot bring the textbooks home and they are just forgetting them?

[Anonymous]

No textbooks to bring home is totally normal now.

[Anonymous]

My kid is in 10th and has attended three different schools for LS, MS, and now HS. The entirety of the physical textbooks (all of which were owned by the school but came home with DC for the length of use): World History (7th), American History (8th), Algebra I (8th), Geometry (9th). All other texts have been online, handouts, etc. (obviously physical novels and such for English). DC had workbooks in early elementary for language arts and French. That’s it. There’s a general shift away from big, expensive, infrequently-updated textbooks. It’s just the new standard.

[Anonymous]

My youngest is in college now. There has never been textbooks sent home since my eldest was in public school in MoCo. I just bought 2nd-hand textbooks on Amazon for all grades and all subjects since my eldest went to school and basically made sure that I was teaching them the material in a systematic manner at home.

In my country of origin -
- We had textbooks that we kept at home, and the same textbooks were used in classrooms too. We had to buy the textbooks for the next grade before the school closed for the end of the academic year.
- Textbooks were standardized for the entire state or national board.
- We were given the curriculum and extensive syllabus for all subjects
- We knew what chapter was covered in each week in each subject
- homework was mandatory but not graded
- All tests and exams were graded and they were sent back home so our parents could check our progress.
- Curriculum, exams, textbooks and syllabus were standardized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My youngest is in college now. There has never been textbooks sent home since my eldest was in public school in MoCo. I just bought 2nd-hand textbooks on Amazon for all grades and all subjects since my eldest went to school and basically made sure that I was teaching them the material in a systematic manner at home.

In my country of origin -
- We had textbooks that we kept at home, and the same textbooks were used in classrooms too. We had to buy the textbooks for the next grade before the school closed for the end of the academic year.
- Textbooks were standardized for the entire state or national board.
- We were given the curriculum and extensive syllabus for all subjects
- We knew what chapter was covered in each week in each subject
- homework was mandatory but not graded
- All tests and exams were graded and they were sent back home so our parents could check our progress.
- Curriculum, exams, textbooks and syllabus were standardized.

Your country of origin did it the right way. Our education system is a disorganized dumpster fire — even at DMV privates. Not having textbooks is absurd.