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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was first hired at fcps about 25 years ago, I was so confused that there were no textbooks. I asked for some and got a “bless your heart.”

My kids had textbooks in FCPS elementary schools 25 years ago. They even had wordly wise booklets to write in. That was at AAP and the local principal saw it from parents who had kids at both schools and bought it. AAP/GT had actual novels assigned. Non AAP [elementary through middle school honors] got some excerpt printouts. Some parents used to buy the real books.

FCPS had some ridiculously oversized books. So much larger and heavier than those used when I went to school in the dark ages. Or what an older kid had in another district. For learning to read years we used stuff from the other district.

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Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are an outdated practice that are expensive, inflexible, and disliked by students.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

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.

So the books still exist in storage? Any central inventory of what books are stashed and the location? Way back when on a playdate a friend was supervising HW and was astounded to see the variation from one FCPS school to another. Same school system, division in VA.

[Anonymous]

My son goes to a private school and a lot of those textbooks are what his school uses. They have our local a school district stamped on them. He has one for foreign language, math, science and history.

[Anonymous]

Only in America.

Then everyone cries about - achievement gap!

This thread has resources

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/716481.page

[Anonymous]

You’re still living in the 20th century. Get with the current time period!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wait until they get to college where you spend $250 on an ebook that expires when the semester ends.

At least back in my day after the semester ended, you got to sell that book back for a little something. And you had the opportunity to buy used books for cheaper.

There are no used ebooks. Neither DD or DS in college have purchased a book for their college classes and gotten to retain it after the class ends. Such a scam.

libgen.rs

[Anonymous]

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.

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.

So the books still exist in storage? Any central inventory of what books are stashed and the location? Way back when on a playdate a friend was supervising HW and was astounded to see the variation from one FCPS school to another. Same school system, division in VA.

At one time there was a library off-site where a lot of books were stored. They shut it down to save money quite a few years back. When I was teaching ES there were books stashed in closets all over the school, and they were usually either given away to teachers and students or whoever wanted them, or just thrown into the recycle bin.

[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.

Some parents like textbooks, some don’t. Some kids like them, some don’t. Some teacher like having them, some don’t.

I honestly think textbooks and workbooks are helpful for teachers. It says a lot of time when it comes to planning.
You can review the lesson and then make it more engaging and differentiated for your class. Workbooks save a lot of time you would need to spend creating activities and worksheets and copying them.

I also think kids should having spelling tests, explicitly learn grammar and how to write a paragraph, and lots of other things I was told were outdated when I taught in Fairfax County. Education interests me so I read on here sometimes. Don’t usually comment but this caught my attention. There are some top rated public schools in this country where every kid gets textbooks and workbooks, and they have weekly spelling tests. There are also some poorly rated public schools where they ask have those things.

I think it all comes down to what each district wants to spend money on and can spend money on. I don’t think it’s wrong to like textbooks, workbooks, or spelling tests. I also think it’s okay if some parents and teachers despise those things and believe they aren’t good tools. I don’t relate to that way of thinking, but there’s plenty of people out there who want to teach in schools where the aren’t given textbooks or workbooks, and they are not to do formally spelling lessons each week. I personally like those things so teaching in Fairfax County was not a good fit for me. I think it’s a good place for teachers who prefer creating their own curriculum and believe weekly spelling lessons and tests are wasteful. Everyone is different! If you like those things, there are still schools out there that provide them. If you don’t like those things, it’s easy to find schools where you’ll never be given a textbook or workbook, or be asked to teach a spelling curriculum.

[Anonymous]

On a phone. I’m sure the mistakes in my writing are laughable. Can’t edit.

[Anonymous]

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

Several districts in New England still use them. I have worked in several schools and have friends who work in them. Some are in very wealthy towns and some are low income schools. Textbooks and workbooks are not viewed as an outdated practice everywhere. I think the push to view them negatively is mostly to convince people they are bad but really it just comes down to budget.

[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 they phased out textbooks as "too expensive" and are spending $$$$ on Ed tech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Elementary schools in PA have textbooks, including spelling books.

Same thing in many districts in MA.

[Anonymous]

It's weird that people think the lack of textbooks says something about the curriculum in FCPS. I taught there. It wasn't like, hey we have no books, teach what you want. It was more like, hey, teach the full SOLs for 4th grade social studies and don't forget all the FCPS POS points, and oh, by the way, we don't have any textbooks or resources for you so you'll have to find all the information online at the VDOE website and then make all your own handouts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's weird that people think the lack of textbooks says something about the curriculum in FCPS. I taught there. It wasn't like, hey we have no books, teach what you want. It was more like, hey, teach the full SOLs for 4th grade social studies and don't forget all the FCPS POS points, and oh, by the way, we don't have any textbooks or resources for you so you'll have to find all the information online at the VDOE website and then make all your own handouts.

Most teams have a planned year long curriculum already with units and materials and specific lessons they do. They should share it all with the new teachers when they arrive but they often don’t. Some don’t like to share since they had to create it themselves first and put in the work and time. They feel it is too easy then for the newbie. They want the newbies to pull their weight. The poor new teachers are often left on their own inventing the wheel even though there is an established team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's weird that people think the lack of textbooks says something about the curriculum in FCPS. I taught there. It wasn't like, hey we have no books, teach what you want. It was more like, hey, teach the full SOLs for 4th grade social studies and don't forget all the FCPS POS points, and oh, by the way, we don't have any textbooks or resources for you so you'll have to find all the information online at the VDOE website and then make all your own handouts.

Most teams have a planned year long curriculum already with units and materials and specific lessons they do. They should share it all with the new teachers when they arrive but they often don’t. Some don’t like to share since they had to create it themselves first and put in the work and time. They feel it is too easy then for the newbie. They want the newbies to pull their weight. The poor new teachers are often left on their own inventing the wheel even though there is an established team.

That’s just insane and depressing to read.