Anonymous wrote:Getting rid of textbooks was the biggest mistake from FCPS

+2. It really hurts a lot of students.

Have not seen a textbook in elementary. Even in fourth grade there were not enough so they would share them if ever used. Mostly it’s death by Google Slides.

My oldest kid has had text books in Physics C, AP world, Biology, and any other class she asked for one. They all get novels in English. My middle kid has had a Latin textbook because he asked for one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Getting rid of textbooks was the biggest mistake from FCPS

It all comes down to money. I doubt they want to replace half of them every year after they are ripped, defaced, or ruined in the latest classroom destruction incident.

When I was in FCPS (a long time ago) we had textbooks passed down for a number of years. You could see the names written in the front. Covered them in paper bags. I'm sure some number every year went missing or were destroyed by negligent students, but most survived the year. You should all remember this.

Are the kids today that much more destructive or negligent? Or do the textbook companies just demand too much money (it is a bit of a racket - maybe a lot of a racket)?

Or are the schools spending so much on technology they had to sacrifice textbooks. I think it may be time to return to textbooks.

Anonymous wrote:Getting rid of textbooks was the biggest mistake from FCPS

It all comes down to money. I doubt they want to replace half of them every year after they are ripped, defaced, or ruined in the latest classroom destruction incident.

Anonymous wrote:Getting rid of textbooks was the biggest mistake from FCPS

+1,000

Getting rid of textbooks was the biggest mistake from FCPS

My kids were issued textbooks in both middle and high school. They kept them at home for assignments and studying. Now, if only elementary school would get on the ball instead of stupidity having kids cut and paste worksheets into notebooks and calling it a day.

Merciful teachers in ES (if even tests in ES) may make study guides, but for MS and HS, kids can review 10,000 Google slide presentations that all have 4,000 embedded links to YouTube videos and another 3,000 links to random internet articles. No text books. Kids prepared for college with mad Google slide abilities.

Anonymous wrote:So what exactly do kids use to refence when they are studying for a science or history exam? How does this prepare them for college?

Is there much studying going on in public school? Many districts don't have midterms/finals anymore.

So what exactly do kids use to refence when they are studying for a science or history exam? How does this prepare them for college?

Never. It is a requirement for AP courses to have a textbook and we still don't have enough copies to actually hand them out.

--HS math teacher

My 4th grader has a Virginia Studies textbook. I think that's the only paper textbook we've seen in ES. Apparently they actually use it.

At the orientation for my 6th grader for middle school, they said something about digital textbooks and I inwardly groaned.

Never.

At what grade do students start receiving/reading text books? Is it high school?