Textbooks are indispensable to me, as the parent of a poor student. They lose the handouts... they have no comprehensive class lecture notes... the study guide / cheat sheets are helpful for the organized student that has kept up all along . However, for the parent whose less than stellar student says "can you help me prepare for my test tomorrow?"... having material that is cobbled together from a myriad of resources that haven't been stored away neatly, it is near impossible. Please, for the love of all that is good, give us a textbook and USE it!

This varies widely from one school to another.

Most Catholic schools still have printed textbooks, but there must be some exceptions.

Anonymous wrote:Not big 3 but DCs have textbooks. In MS they had books that “lived” at school and we had a copy at home so they didn’t have to lug it back and forth every day. In HS we just bought the textbook.

We’ve been very pleased with the science curriculum and “rigor” despite the constant negative comparisons to public schools re STEM on this board. Block schedules have meant that certain lab AP classes don’t fit into the schedule, but the teachers created their own honors classes as a result and they’ve been excellent.

Which school is this?

DC’s k-8 did not have textbooks for science and had a curriculum that had units in all the broad science categories every year, which worked out very well for being exposed to various disciplines and learning the foundations of each. I guess what is sometimes called a spiraling method of teaching.

DC was extremely well prepared for HS classes where each year focuses on a single discipline (physics, chemistry, bio; although of course there are principles of one discipline in other disciplines). HS has had textbooks, although some have been online-only (but still actual textbooks).

Not big 3 but DCs have textbooks. In MS they had books that “lived” at school and we had a copy at home so they didn’t have to lug it back and forth every day. In HS we just bought the textbook.

We’ve been very pleased with the science curriculum and “rigor” despite the constant negative comparisons to public schools re STEM on this board. Block schedules have meant that certain lab AP classes don’t fit into the schedule, but the teachers created their own honors classes as a result and they’ve been excellent.

Does brain pop count as a textbook?

It is a rip off. No textbooks and I am not sure what is the logic behind it.

Does independent middle school science classes have textbooks? Subjects like Physics and Chemistry. What about high school?
I find the science curriculum in middle school (e.g. big 3) all a little fragmented. They study one year earth science, one year biology, and one year chemistry?
How do they build this in a systematic way? What about physics? Are textbooks obsolete?