Reply to 92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I can only assume that everybody who yearns for the good old days of textbooks never used a textbook? There used to be a whole lot of bad textbooks. [/quote]

Yes, there were some bad textbooks out there, but [b]the parents could look at them and see if they were bad[/b].  While they sometimes had factual errors I recall they were usually written and reviewed by a committee of subject matter experts.  I'll take them any day over a committee of educational experts whose mathematical expertise is unknown.

Further, I think as any textbook is better than none.  I'll never forget when my daughter had her first math textbook  (Math A).  She asked me a question about her homework and when I asked if she'd read that section of her textbook she had no idea what I meant.  She was astounded to discover there were explanations and sample problems there to help her.  Then I showed her there was also a glossary and index.[/quote]

The parents could? Which parents? The same parents who need textbooks because they are unable to look math stuff up on the Internet (per the PPs)?[/quote]

Kid goes to parent says this doesn't make sense and parent can check the text.  Yes, some parents may not know/be able to look up the math being taught.  However, I think MCPS has enough educated and concerned parents that if the textbook were that bad it would be noticed.   You can use the internet to find that a few years back many communities had parents protesting for new math textbooks, and they got them.  Sadly, the textbooks they protested sounded a lot like our curriculum.  It's a lot harder to argue with a curriculum when tests aren't sent home and the only way to see the curriculum is to go to the central office library or the school library and look at the curriculum there because you can't check it out.  (This was under the old curriculum, now that the curriculum's online I don't think parents can access it at all.)

In the meantime, even if the book has some errors or a less than ideal approach, I still maintain that any textbook is better than none.
 [/quote]

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