No Textbooks in Elementary School; All of FCPS, or Just Schools Near Me?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are an outdated practice that are expensive, inflexible, and disliked by students. Schools across the country have stopped using them.

Public schools across the country have stopped using them and justify this by talking about the "expense" of purchasing them. Instead they are spending that money on Chromebooks which have full internet access because everyone knows children have the self-control to focus on the math problems they are supposed to be doing on the screen instead of Youtube videos.
In the meantime Catholic schools are still using textbooks and we can all see the terrible results they are getting in educating children of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are an outdated practice that are expensive, inflexible, and disliked by students. Schools across the country have stopped using them.

Public schools across the country have stopped using them and justify this by talking about the "expense" of purchasing them. Instead they are spending that money on Chromebooks which have full internet access because everyone knows children have the self-control to focus on the math problems they are supposed to be doing on the screen instead of Youtube videos.
In the meantime Catholic schools are still using textbooks and we can all see the terrible results they are getting in educating children of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

Yes. Actually, I found a room in an ES school piled with Math, LA and science textbook. County recreation used that room for a beginner level music instrument class. Letting school use the textbooks won't cause more spending. But FCPS wastes a lot money buying and forces teacher to use those stupid game based learning tool like ST Math, Lexia, Frax, Reflex.

[Anonymous]

There are textbooks. They are online ebooks and no one uses them. But it's not an issue of cost since FCPS does purchase online textbooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are textbooks. They are online ebooks and no one uses them. But it's not an issue of cost since FCPS does purchase online textbooks.

Elementary schools don't use text books.

[Anonymous]

What’s a textbook, boomer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s a textbook, boomer?

What's a texbook, Gen X?


FACTS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are an outdated practice that are expensive, inflexible, and disliked by students. Schools across the country have stopped using them.

Public schools across the country have stopped using them and justify this by talking about the "expense" of purchasing them. Instead they are spending that money on Chromebooks which have full internet access because everyone knows children have the self-control to focus on the math problems they are supposed to be doing on the screen instead of Youtube videos.
In the meantime Catholic schools are still using textbooks and we can all see the terrible results they are getting in educating children of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

Spot on

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are an outdated practice that are expensive, inflexible, and disliked by students. Schools across the country have stopped using them.

Public schools across the country have stopped using them and justify this by talking about the "expense" of purchasing them. Instead they are spending that money on Chromebooks which have full internet access because everyone knows children have the self-control to focus on the math problems they are supposed to be doing on the screen instead of Youtube videos.
In the meantime Catholic schools are still using textbooks and we can all see the terrible results they are getting in educating children of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

Are catholic schools doing any better than FCPS? Do you have any data to back up your assertion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s FCPS wide. Rumor has it that you can ask for a text book in MS and HS classes. I say rumor because my kid is in ES and I have yet to give the text book ask a go.

It is true that you can ask for a textbook and they are *supposed* to honor that request. It's worked for my kids throughout elementary and middle school; in high school, they were all given textbooks, thankfully. Online "textbooks" are the WORST.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh fun. Another thread about the outdated practice of using textbooks. You don't need textbooks to learn. They rarely match the actual curriculum being taught and are a waste of money. You must also have been really disappointed when encyclopedias went the way of the dodo bird.

Oh fun. The usual charming troll is back to tell the rest of us what our kids do and don't need. Newsflash: my kids don't need some idiotic online "textbook" that freezes and glitches and is subject to the whims of our internet actually working. Textbooks are a crucial part of learning WELL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are an outdated practice that are expensive, inflexible, and disliked by students. Schools across the country have stopped using them.

My kids much prefer using them and if they're not handed out in class, they request one to keep at home. Speak for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are an outdated practice that are expensive, inflexible, and disliked by students. Schools across the country have stopped using them.

Public schools across the country have stopped using them and justify this by talking about the "expense" of purchasing them. Instead they are spending that money on Chromebooks which have full internet access because everyone knows children have the self-control to focus on the math problems they are supposed to be doing on the screen instead of Youtube videos.
In the meantime Catholic schools are still using textbooks and we can all see the terrible results they are getting in educating children of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

+1
I sub regularly in elementary schools and the amount of time these kids are online is unreal - stupid, dumbed-down online "learning" programs. They just watch YouTube when they think they won't get caught. It's beyond pathetic. In retrospect, I wish I had sent my kids to Catholic school, and we're not even Catholic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are textbooks. They are online ebooks and no one uses them. But it's not an issue of cost since FCPS does purchase online textbooks.

Elementary schools don't use text books.

Some do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So my kids in 2nd, 4th and 5th grades don't really have textbooks. Actually, I think the 4th grader has a social studies book, but that's it. Mostly, they're given articles to read online. Their teachers sometimes give them questions to answer based upon the articles online, but I've noticed that often, the assigned questions ask things that aren't answered in the assigned articles. It seems rather lazy to me, and I'm concerned there's something lost by not having textbooks to present an organized lesson containing questions closely assigned to the reading, and with successive lessons clearly building on prior instruction.
I graduated HS back in 1998, so it's been a while, but I remember having several textbooks from elementary through high school, often making book covers out of paper trashbags, ets.

At the risk of sounding like a total luddite:
Is having everything online an FCPS-wide thing?
Is this something that's happening at the middle and high school levels too?
Is this the new normal everywhere?

I believe it is district-wide, including in MS and HS. That said, I have had three kids go through FCPS and the lack of textbooks has not inhibited them in any way (at least in the ES years). They do bring home reading books, and they can check out textbooks in MS or HS if they want them (my HS DD take copious notes, so she has checked out three books so far, but my DS did not and was fine). I think they just teach things differently now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are an outdated practice that are expensive, inflexible, and disliked by students. Schools across the country have stopped using them.

Public schools across the country have stopped using them and justify this by talking about the "expense" of purchasing them. Instead they are spending that money on Chromebooks which have full internet access because everyone knows children have the self-control to focus on the math problems they are supposed to be doing on the screen instead of Youtube videos.
In the meantime Catholic schools are still using textbooks and we can all see the terrible results they are getting in educating children of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

+1
I sub regularly in elementary schools and the amount of time these kids are online is unreal - stupid, dumbed-down online "learning" programs. They just watch YouTube when they think they won't get caught. It's beyond pathetic. In retrospect, I wish I had sent my kids to Catholic school, and we're not even Catholic.

Most teachers tend to leave more tech assignments on sub days because it is easier. Doesn’t mean everyday is like that.