Is anyone else bothered that schools no longer use books?

[Anonymous]

Love paying my high MoCo taxes and see that my child’s elementary school teacher is using teachers-paying-teachers worksheets from some teacher in the Midwest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's pretty low on my list of concerns. It's not like textbook-learning was inspiring for lots of kids.

-Teacher

Lazy teacher

No textbooks and no real teaching anymore.

I recall my 7th grade social studies teacher lecturing the entire hour. She sat perched on a stool in the front of the class- no notes, no slides, she just talked and narrated US history. It was long one long story hour and it was phenomenal. I don’t even think most teachers have this knowledge ability anymore

[Anonymous]

Textbooks are written to serve large markets like TX and FL. They have rewritten textbooks to meet all the crazy educational restrictions in those states. No thank you.

[Anonymous]

OP yes its bizarre and I don't like it at all.

[Anonymous]

Not terribly bothered, no. Very few textbooks are worthwhile... there's pros and cons to other approaches to accessing material, but textbooks aren't some magical panacea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are written to serve large markets like TX and FL. They have rewritten textbooks to meet all the crazy educational restrictions in those states. No thank you.

And CA. They do custom builds for every state, and even every college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid in elementary, middle and high school and none of my kids seem to use books. Of course they read in English but that is it! My high school kid is taking world history with no book. My middle school kid has no algebra book. My elementary school kid has no science book.

Does this bother anyone else?

I hate that everything is online. I want to buy my high school kid a book he can flag and highlight.

I'm also not bothered by them not using hand-written manuscripts or scrolls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fun fact that goes through my mind any time someone mentions textbooks: I grew up in a communist dictatorship. We had textbooks in every class! Actually really good ones in math. And guess what: parents had to buy them for their children. Poor children received free school copies.

Compare to post-communist fighting-for-social-justice America in 2023 where schools don't buy textbooks because they lack the money and asking parents to buy them is considered anti-equity or whatnot because the poor couldn't afford it (and no one would want to subsidize them.) My MS kid now is being read to from a book because the teacher doesn't have enough copies for every child to read themselves.

You mentioned math, which is universal. Can I ask what the non-math books were like? Never talked with someone raised in that environment about early childhood education. I always think things were heavily censored. In retrospect would you say the non-math subjects covered the same concepts as those covered in other countries?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's pretty low on my list of concerns. It's not like textbook-learning was inspiring for lots of kids.

-Teacher

Lazy teacher

No textbooks and no real teaching anymore.

I recall my 7th grade social studies teacher lecturing the entire hour. She sat perched on a stool in the front of the class- no notes, no slides, she just talked and narrated US history. It was long one long story hour and it was phenomenal. I don’t even think most teachers have this knowledge ability anymore

I posted on DCUM about three months ago that I still lecture and use textbooks. I was criticized and insulted for two pages because I’m a bad teacher who doesn’t follow modern science about how students learn. I don’t teach elementary school; I teach AP courses to 12th graders.

It doesn’t matter what teachers do. We are going to be considered lazy, dumb, ineffective, etc.

As for your comment that “most teachers” don’t have this knowledge: we do! We just are told to teach using the latest fads created by “instructional experts”.

[Anonymous]

No textbooks in FCPS is one reason we switched to Catholic school. Real textbooks, minimal technology, no phones during the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's pretty low on my list of concerns. It's not like textbook-learning was inspiring for lots of kids.

-Teacher

+1. But as a parent, it’s definitely easier to follow what they are learning if there a textbook, but I am also ok without them.

[Anonymous]

Sorry public schools are never going back. Truly a shame. Only way to get a real education anymore is religious or private. Real teachers, real textbooks.

Will have to work with your kids outside of those schools to get AP credits but worth it.

[Anonymous]

I posted on DCUM about three months ago that I still lecture and use textbooks. I was criticized and insulted for two pages because I’m a bad teacher who doesn’t follow modern science about how students learn. I don’t teach elementary school; I teach AP courses to 12th graders.

It doesn’t matter what teachers do. We are going to be considered lazy, dumb, ineffective, etc.

As for your comment that “most teachers” don’t have this knowledge: we do! We just are told to teach using the latest fads created by “instructional experts”.

+1

And when I get observed by administrators, they are looking to see how I am “integrating technology.” This justifies the employment of our technology integration teacher, and I am criticized if I have elementary students simply read and write (“have them make a video! They can narrate it instead and choose image off Google!”). Sure there’s a place for that kind of thing, but there will be plenty of time to learn those skills AFTER they have foundational skills mastered.

[Anonymous]

We recently moved from MCPS (Bradley Hills / Pyle / Whitman) to California.

My kids now have books for every academic class. When they brought them home we weighed them. 30lbs worth of books. They keep them at home with digital versions to access at school if required in class.

It is so much better than not having books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I posted on DCUM about three months ago that I still lecture and use textbooks. I was criticized and insulted for two pages because I’m a bad teacher who doesn’t follow modern science about how students learn. I don’t teach elementary school; I teach AP courses to 12th graders.

It doesn’t matter what teachers do. We are going to be considered lazy, dumb, ineffective, etc.

As for your comment that “most teachers” don’t have this knowledge: we do! We just are told to teach using the latest fads created by “instructional experts”.

+1

And when I get observed by administrators, they are looking to see how I am “integrating technology.” This justifies the employment of our technology integration teacher, and I am criticized if I have elementary students simply read and write (“have them make a video! They can narrate it instead and choose image off Google!”). Sure there’s a place for that kind of thing, but there will be plenty of time to learn those skills AFTER they have foundational skills mastered.

My observations are such a silly show. How do I incorporate technology? How are students teaching themselves? (For those who aren’t teachers: the highest ratings go to teachers who don’t actually teach. The idea is to get students teaching themselves and others. Teachers should be the “guide on the side, not the sage on the stage.” You can imagine how well that works in a classroom of unmotivated teenagers, especially when you can’t give them engaging material since the curriculum stinks.) It’s absolutely ridiculous.