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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are an outdated practice that are expensive, inflexible, and disliked by students.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/

I don't see any mention of FCPS there

Ugh, the PO asked about Catholic schools’ data

[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 Another thread about the outdated practice of using textbooks.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.

That's exactly what we plan to do - along with plenty of other families.

We went to an open house at our local k-8 Catholic school. We really liked it and wanted to apply. Since we are not Catholics, our kids are likely not to get in. Apparently there is a lengthy waitlist. We were told precovid we would not of had an issue.

You are not Catholic but you would send your kid to a Catholic school?

Might want to read up on Catholism.

[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.

That's exactly what we plan to do - along with plenty of other families.

We went to an open house at our local k-8 Catholic school. We really liked it and wanted to apply. Since we are not Catholics, our kids are likely not to get in. Apparently there is a lengthy waitlist. We were told precovid we would not of had an issue.

You are not Catholic but you would send your kid to a Catholic school?

Might want to read up on Catholism.

I think you might want to read up. Catholic schools are known for being open to people other other faiths, and there is a reason for that. The reason is that the mission of most Catholic schools - and of Catholic school in general - is not to serve an insular population of Catholics. In fact, the Jesuits, who run many of the Catholic educational institutions, explicitly state that their mission is to reach all people, not just Catholics.

[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.

I am a former teacher and I actually think you are giving them too much credit. I think the reason is more to do with incompetence and adherence to really poor methods of instruction that say textbooks = bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That's exactly what we plan to do - along with plenty of other families.

We went to an open house at our local k-8 Catholic school. We really liked it and wanted to apply. Since we are not Catholics, our kids are likely not to get in. Apparently there is a lengthy waitlist. We were told precovid we would not of had an issue.

You are not Catholic but you would send your kid to a Catholic school?

Might want to read up on Catholism.

I think you might want to read up. Catholic schools are known for being open to people other other faiths, and there is a reason for that. The reason is that the mission of most Catholic schools - and of Catholic school in general - is not to serve an insular population of Catholics. In fact, the Jesuits, who run many of the Catholic educational institutions, explicitly state that their mission is to reach all people, not just Catholics.

Agree with this. We are non Catholics and send our youngest to a parochial school. Kept the older two at FCPS but sent our youngest during covid. DD’s class made a sacrament a few weeks back. I was worried my kid would feel left out, but it was a nonissue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That's exactly what we plan to do - along with plenty of other families.

We went to an open house at our local k-8 Catholic school. We really liked it and wanted to apply. Since we are not Catholics, our kids are likely not to get in. Apparently there is a lengthy waitlist. We were told precovid we would not of had an issue.

You are not Catholic but you would send your kid to a Catholic school?

Might want to read up on Catholism.

I think you might want to read up. Catholic schools are known for being open to people other other faiths, and there is a reason for that. The reason is that the mission of most Catholic schools - and of Catholic school in general - is not to serve an insular population of Catholics. In fact, the Jesuits, who run many of the Catholic educational institutions, explicitly state that their mission is to reach all people, not just Catholics.

Agree with this. We are non Catholics and send our youngest to a parochial school. Kept the older two at FCPS but sent our youngest during covid. DD’s class made a sacrament a few weeks back. I was worried my kid would feel left out, but it was a nonissue.

+1

“We don’t teach them because THEY are Catholic; we teach them because WE are”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I would love to have textbooks to use with my students. Textbooks are costly and curriculum changes. I get that. It would be to the benefit it the students, families, and teachers to have access to them. I’d rather money go towards textbooks than the countless PD days we have in our calendar.

+100
Not to mention, some of the (very expensive) online programs are absolute crap, and many teachers agree with this. What a waste of money.

[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.

Is there any research that shows that kids learn better without books than with books?

By now it seems like there should be good studies about different educational outcomes books v. No books.

[Anonymous]

FCPS is paying Randos at Gatehouse to put together the pacing guide. Who made these people the experts on curriculum development? It’s not working. It’s full of gaps. Things aren’t taught to mastery. Students and families are struggling bc there is no textbook or syllabus. Random snippets of paper and worksheets begot from TPT and home school websites are thrown at the students. It’s all very poor quality and sequential learning is not happening. There is jumping from SOL strand to SOL strand. It’s all terribly disappointing.

[Anonymous]

As a former FCPS grad - from elementary through high school in the late 70s-80s - nothing about present day FCPS resembles the excellent and vigorous education my siblings and I received. It’s just incredibly sad that a once truly exceptional school system has become such a watered-down shadow of its former self. Very relieved my youngest is graduating this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So apparently, things have changed drastically.

However, one of my biggest concerns was how the online reading articles didn't seem to match up to the review questions my kid was assigned.

Are the online articles and questions standardized across FCPS at each grade level, or is each teacher expected to pull together their own resources?
In other words, does this mean a good teacher may put more effort into selecting articles and crafting or finding associated review questions, while a crap teacher at the same school (or a different FCPS school) can get away with just slapping some disjointed mess together and assigning it?

In this new (to me) everything online paradigm, where does the oversight and accountability for providing a cogent lesson occur? At the FCPS level? Regional level? The school's grade team? Just the individual teacher?

What program is she using for these articles and questions?

My kid's asleep, but IIRC, it was Jason Learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So apparently, things have changed drastically.

However, one of my biggest concerns was how the online reading articles didn't seem to match up to the review questions my kid was assigned.

Are the online articles and questions standardized across FCPS at each grade level, or is each teacher expected to pull together their own resources?
In other words, does this mean a good teacher may put more effort into selecting articles and crafting or finding associated review questions, while a crap teacher at the same school (or a different FCPS school) can get away with just slapping some disjointed mess together and assigning it?

In this new (to me) everything online paradigm, where does the oversight and accountability for providing a cogent lesson occur? At the FCPS level? Regional level? The school's grade team? Just the individual teacher?

What program is she using for these articles and questions?

My kid's asleep, but IIRC, it was Jason Learning.

That is part of the AAP curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a former FCPS grad - from elementary through high school in the late 70s-80s - nothing about present day FCPS resembles the excellent and vigorous education my siblings and I received. It’s just incredibly sad that a once truly exceptional school system has become such a watered-down shadow of its former self. Very relieved my youngest is graduating this year.

I am sure the demographics looked very different. I can tell you the behavior of kids is different. That all plays in.

[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.

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.

Do you truly believe students learn best on screens?

[Anonymous]

Other elementary schools have textbooks. FCPS having none seems cheap and short sighted.