Why oh why don't schools use textbooks anymore??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a teacher, but teachers at my kid's schools have said that the issue is that textbooks become outdated so quickly after they are printed. Putting so much money into a resource that needs to be reprinted/updated frequently is wasteful.

That's baloney. I'm pretty sure time moved as fast from 1950-2010. I'm also sure math, foreign language, and all sciences are not moving at such a rapid pace. The only area I can image that being true is history/social studies. And even that is nutty. And you can't tell me printing out sheet upon sheet during the year is really producing less waste than a single textbook.

+1 that sounds like BS

It's not that the subjects change, it's that the publishers have shortened their print runs. So a textbook goes out of print in 3-4 years. If you're a system with 50,000 kids, and the textbook you use is out of print, and you don't have enough copies, what do you do? You have to pick a new textbook and throw away all the old ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a teacher, but teachers at my kid's schools have said that the issue is that textbooks become outdated so quickly after they are printed. Putting so much money into a resource that needs to be reprinted/updated frequently is wasteful.

That's baloney. I'm pretty sure time moved as fast from 1950-2010. I'm also sure math, foreign language, and all sciences are not moving at such a rapid pace. The only area I can image that being true is history/social studies. And even that is nutty. And you can't tell me printing out sheet upon sheet during the year is really producing less waste than a single textbook.

+1 that sounds like BS

It's not that the subjects change, it's that the publishers have shortened their print runs. So a textbook goes out of print in 3-4 years. If you're a system with 50,000 kids, and the textbook you use is out of print, and you don't have enough copies, what do you do? You have to pick a new textbook and throw away all the old ones.

Yeah, that makes more sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a teacher, but teachers at my kid's schools have said that the issue is that textbooks become outdated so quickly after they are printed. Putting so much money into a resource that needs to be reprinted/updated frequently is wasteful.

This is such a ridiculous concept.
US books are used by so many schools overseas -- both international and local schools where English is a second or a third language. I loved all of my textbooks and was very surprised that they are not used by the majority of the schools in the USA.

It think that the biggest problem comes from the fact that there is no national curriculum. In each state counties spend an exorbitant amount of funds on the so called new and improved curriculum year after year.

Next the teachers feel that it is their responsibility to "create material" to meet the demands of the constantly changing curriculum.
I was very disappointed at a highly regarded charter school where the created material was no more than randomly printed out material from the internet. Add to it the model of reading/writing workshop or math workshop, and you deal with a teacher doing a 5 minute direct teaching only with the rest of the time students being in small groups teaching each other ... aka one student doing the work while others either copy or get bored and act out.

If not a national curriculum, there should be a state curriculum where textbooks/workbooks are in use. The ELL. ESL, new students who have never been to school in their home country can all be accommodated if the classroom teacher is experienced.
As for BASIS, maybe things will get better both with admin and keeping the good teachers. From the very beginning there was a de facto parent principal, master puppeteer, who somehow decided what happened at the school. Her last kid graduated last year and the family is no longer in the DC area. Good riddance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a teacher, but teachers at my kid's schools have said that the issue is that textbooks become outdated so quickly after they are printed. Putting so much money into a resource that needs to be reprinted/updated frequently is wasteful.

Science teacher here. I can verify the reason stated by the PP but it makes me crazy too! I finally convinced admin to at least purchase hard copies of teachers manuals for my department but they were so poorly done and just kept referencing the online material! Aggg!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone (an educator) please tell me why schools have decided not to use textbooks anymore?? (With the exception of math, sometimes). IT just drives me bananas come exam time, and my poor kid is shuffling through various packets and notes on random papers, and . . . . it is hard for me to help her with a study strategy when old school methods (you know, review the source material/textbook) are out the window. Makes it so much harder to get a handle on the universe of material you need to master. BIGGEST PET PEEVE EVER - I'm looking at you, Basis - where there is just a ton of material/concepts covered and no "mother" source to review/turn to for answers.

UGGHHHHH!!

I'm a Basis parent, I'll back you on that! I wish they had books!

It's EVERYWHERE. And it's awful.

+100. I loved my massive English lit books in high school, college, and still remember them with fondness. You know, the ones with the tissue paper pages.

The Norton Anthology of XXX literature!

My god, it was like 8 pt font.

Norton! Thank you for remembering this. LOVE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This should be a rallying point for parents--to get text books back in the classroom. Energy spent on this rather than arguments over masking is a much more wise use of time and energy.

I can definitely get behind this!

[Anonymous]

I’m a high school science teacher. Science instruction has moved away from rote memorization of science facts and more into science skills, analysis and critical thinking. I have access to textbooks but choose not to use them (both AP level and freshman level). Instead I give my students diagrams to analyze. Real data to analyze. Labs to complete and analyze. Modeling projects where they need to wrestle with the content and make sense of it as they go. It often takes a while to convince students that the goal is not memorization. No publishers textbook I’ve had access to does any justice to aligning well with the rewritten AP science curriculum or NGSS. They claim to but don’t. Maybe I’ve just never had access to one’s that do. I can say in a heartbeat I’d rather have $8000 dollars in lab equipment as opposed to 80 $100 textbooks for my students to occasionally use.

[Anonymous]

I agree 100% PARENTS NEED TO KET THE SCHOOL BOARD KNOW. In addition to sharing your opinion here, write to the people making decisions. If everyone here wrote them things might change.

[Anonymous]

It is very out of vogue to use a textbook, especially in history. I use a textbook and assign class work and homework in it. It isn’t all we do, but I agree that textbooks are good as foundations + structure + review.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is very out of vogue to use a textbook, especially in history. I use a textbook and assign class work and homework in it. It isn’t all we do, but I agree that textbooks are good as foundations + structure + review.

I’m the PP and HS AP/IB teacher in DCPS. I feel lucky but I actually love one of my AP textbooks. I just wish I had a hard copy for each student. Instead it’s online access only.

[Anonymous]

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a high school science teacher. Science instruction has moved away from rote memorization of science facts and more into science skills, analysis and critical thinking. I have access to textbooks but choose not to use them (both AP level and freshman level). Instead I give my students diagrams to analyze. Real data to analyze. Labs to complete and analyze. Modeling projects where they need to wrestle with the content and make sense of it as they go. It often takes a while to convince students that the goal is not memorization. No publishers textbook I’ve had access to does any justice to aligning well with the rewritten AP science curriculum or NGSS. They claim to but don’t. Maybe I’ve just never had access to one’s that do. I can say in a heartbeat I’d rather have $8000 dollars in lab equipment as opposed to 80 $100 textbooks for my students to occasionally use.

Elementary teacher here and our old textbooks are beautiful albeit not fully-NGSS aligned. While I rely on hands-on exploration, texts are a wonderful HANDS-ON way to explain/confirm what students have discovered. Black and white photocopies of texts aren’t nearly as engaging as full-color texts.

[Anonymous]

Honestly you all sound like a bunch of grandmas. Textbooks seem really dated and stagnant…except for math,maybe.

[Anonymous]

Continuing from above: with photos and colorful graphics. It’s a loss. The online curriculum folks have really convinced administrators in central offices of school systems that they’re saving so much money, trees, etc. But it’s really a loss. Makes me wonder if there are any kickbacks going on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly you all sound like a bunch of grandmas. Textbooks seem really dated and stagnant…except for math,maybe.

Thank you! I’m not a grandma but happy to sound like one. My grandma was the wisest person I knew. And she knew that things of substance were of value. We have given our children so much that is a mile wide an an inch deep.