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

[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.

My kid asked for an Algebra book in MS and we got to keep it at home till the end of the year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

My kid asked for an Algebra book in MS and we got to keep it at home till the end of the year

+1
Same here, along with all her other core subjects.

[Anonymous]

We were supposed to get reading texts this year, but the new governor put the kibosh on them being released until they decide if they are “appropriate.”

As an elementary teacher, I can tell you that kids do much less reading without textbooks and it is a real timesuck for teachers to find material online and make up materials and spend forever copying things, and I don’t want the kids online all day.

I found textbooks to be very helpful and I can tell you that I saw a big change when they were phased out, and not for the better. The amount of time kids spend cutting and gluing handouts into notebooks is crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were supposed to get reading texts this year, but the new governor put the kibosh on them being released until they decide if they are “appropriate.”

As an elementary teacher, I can tell you that kids do much less reading without textbooks and it is a real timesuck for teachers to find material online and make up materials and spend forever copying things, and I don’t want the kids online all day.

I found textbooks to be very helpful and I can tell you that I saw a big change when they were phased out, and not for the better. The amount of time kids spend cutting and gluing handouts into notebooks is crazy.

I was kind of excited to find out today that Lexia has passages for comprehension practice. I had no clue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 Another thread about the outdated practice of using textbooks.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.

Maybe you as an adult don't really need textbooks to learn, but young children definitely do. Most kids cannot learn well from a screen, especially when combined with the noise and distractions from other kids at school. Furthermore, the quality of the current programs leaves much to be desired, when compared with a good book.

As for the OP, yes, everything that you've feared is true. Books are almost completely phased out of schools, kids are more easily distracted and have behavior issues, which leads to admins phasing out more books in favor of tech ed computer programs, which creates more screen addiction, and this cycle feeds back on itself endlessly. Your best bet is to pick and purchase some high quality books for your kids and have them work on them at home under your guidance. It's the hard path because you have to be much more involved than usual, but unfortunately it is what it is, if you care about their education. In today's dumbed down K-12 educational system, this is likely the best outcome if you want your kids to be curious, motivated, and not completely addicted to screens.

I completely agree with this. It is so hard to learn to be a teacher for your children, and honestly it is a huge time suck for me. But my kids were falling behind and the teachers were not addressing it. All of the game based learning programs are useless and I had to do something to make sure they learned to read, add, subtract etc. I may be underperforming at work because I’m picking up the slack at home, but I’ll be damned if I have a third grader who can’t read or write.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Maybe you as an adult don't really need textbooks to learn, but young children definitely do. Most kids cannot learn well from a screen, especially when combined with the noise and distractions from other kids at school. Furthermore, the quality of the current programs leaves much to be desired, when compared with a good book.

As for the OP, yes, everything that you've feared is true. Books are almost completely phased out of schools, kids are more easily distracted and have behavior issues, which leads to admins phasing out more books in favor of tech ed computer programs, which creates more screen addiction, and this cycle feeds back on itself endlessly. Your best bet is to pick and purchase some high quality books for your kids and have them work on them at home under your guidance. It's the hard path because you have to be much more involved than usual, but unfortunately it is what it is, if you care about their education. In today's dumbed down K-12 educational system, this is likely the best outcome if you want your kids to be curious, motivated, and not completely addicted to screens.

No, they don’t. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sorry. It’s not 1990 anymore. Textbooks aren’t coming back in public schools. Try Catholic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sorry. It’s not 1990 anymore. Textbooks aren’t coming back in public schools. Try Catholic.

Maybe the learning loss from the pandemic will be enough to bring them back.

Never say never.

[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.

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

Why can’t you look things up on your own? Here’s the data:

https://www.educationnext.org/catholic-schools-are-a-rare-bright-spot-in-nations-report-card-2022-data/

[Anonymous]

Elementary schools in PA have textbooks, including spelling books.

[Anonymous]

There are lots of problems with not having quality textbooks for kids in FCPS, such as:
-lack of continuity and connectedness in topics
-gaps in knowledge
-less learning from reading
-less hand-to-mind activation with loss of ability to write in margins and highlight
-no one source to read and re-read as a review
-no consulting source to answer questions
-no ability for teachers to know what full class body knows because lack of consistency due to vids and differentiation
-poorly written, un-peer reviewed materials which lack color, graphs, excitement in layout
-lots of grammatical and math mistakes in internet material pulled from random creators
-lack of sequential learning and thoroughness
-too much reliance on Gatehouse to make a better curriculum than McGraw Hill, for example—who qualifies them
-too much printing out worksheets and gluing pages
-no cohesive book to review for SOL at end of year
-no practice in reading textbook before college
-poor study skills with no learned note-taking ability
-etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are lots of problems with not having quality textbooks for kids in FCPS, such as:
-lack of continuity and connectedness in topics
-gaps in knowledge
-less learning from reading
-less hand-to-mind activation with loss of ability to write in margins and highlight
-no one source to read and re-read as a review
-no consulting source to answer questions
-no ability for teachers to know what full class body knows because lack of consistency due to vids and differentiation
-poorly written, un-peer reviewed materials which lack color, graphs, excitement in layout
-lots of grammatical and math mistakes in internet material pulled from random creators
-lack of sequential learning and thoroughness
-too much reliance on Gatehouse to make a better curriculum than McGraw Hill, for example—who qualifies them
-too much printing out worksheets and gluing pages
-no cohesive book to review for SOL at end of year
-no practice in reading textbook before college
-poor study skills with no learned note-taking ability
-etc

I agree. Please send this list to the new superintendent, to the current school board members, to your school's principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sorry. It’s not 1990 anymore. Textbooks aren’t coming back in public schools. Try Catholic.

Maybe the learning loss from the pandemic will be enough to bring them back.

Never say never.

FCPS doesn't care about the learning loss (they really don't). They were given money from the government and are spending it on online tutoring and (some) in-person remediation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sorry. It’s not 1990 anymore. Textbooks aren’t coming back in public schools. Try Catholic.

Maybe the learning loss from the pandemic will be enough to bring them back.

Never say never.

FCPS doesn't care about the learning loss (they really don't). They were given money from the government and are spending it on online tutoring and (some) in-person remediation.

Why do posters post things like this? If you really think that the schools really don't care, then it's time to research and move to a better district.

FCPS knows that catching up learning loss is really difficult and also knows that teachers and others just don't want to do in-person remediation, leaving few options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sorry. It’s not 1990 anymore. Textbooks aren’t coming back in public schools. Try Catholic.

Maybe the learning loss from the pandemic will be enough to bring them back.

Never say never.

FCPS doesn't care about the learning loss (they really don't). They were given money from the government and are spending it on online tutoring and (some) in-person remediation.

Why do posters post things like this? If you really think that the schools really don't care, then it's time to research and move to a better district.

FCPS knows that catching up learning loss is really difficult and also knows that teachers and others just don't want to do in-person remediation, leaving few options.

If they cared we would see steps to mitigate it beyond offering free tutor.com.