Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are expensive, go out of date quickly and need to be repurchased every year or two. Schools have shifted to being a free for all. It's a disaster. You would think that private schools, with much more money than publics, would be willing to spend some of that tuition money on textbooks, but unfortunately they are more focused on their endowments and facilities. It's a sad day.

Not the case for math, science and most of history. My DD (public in IL) has textbooks for math and science, and workbooks with a lot of text material in them but also allow for writing in them, for science and grammar/word study. The math textbooks don't come home unless you request it, but usually if you request it, you can keep one at home for the year rather than bring back and forth. And they have a classroom set. I think it's hugely valuable and I am trying to show her how to really use it to refer to examples when she's having a hard time with a problem.

For my high schooler, they have very few textbooks, but I got a hand me down math textbook and I ordered world history from online.

Enjoy your Google Classroom and Google Chromebook.

Google, the gift that keeps on giving (and taking taxpayer or school money).

My DC is currently at St. Mary’s in Alexandria and has textbooks for every class. What grade is your kid in, OP?

My kids at BSSM had textbooks for most classes. Gone 3 years so things may be changing.

Many textbooks are too heavy for elementary school kids to carry in a backpack. When I was in middle school, they started having concerns that kids were walking hunched from all the books.

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are expensive, go out of date quickly and need to be repurchased every year or two. Schools have shifted to being a free for all. It's a disaster. You would think that private schools, with much more money than publics, would be willing to spend some of that tuition money on textbooks, but unfortunately they are more focused on their endowments and facilities. It's a sad day.

Untrue for most subjects. Math textbooks from 50 years ago are just as accurate now as then, to give a trivial example. Even in physics, all the basic HS level stuff is 90+% the same as 25 years ago. Math has not changed. Physics changed only slightly and only at the bleeding edge - college and grad school levels.

Possibly the claim is true for a current events course or in some quite narrow way (e.g., genetic biology).

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are dated. Parents struggle with it. No problem for kids. My kids are in T20 colleges...almost no textbooks.

My kid struggles with no textbooks. He does best in the classes that have textbooks, especially with AP classes.

Anonymous wrote:Textbooks are expensive, go out of date quickly and need to be repurchased every year or two. Schools have shifted to being a free for all. It's a disaster. You would think that private schools, with much more money than publics, would be willing to spend some of that tuition money on textbooks, but unfortunately they are more focused on their endowments and facilities. It's a sad day.

Why do textbooks go out of date in a year or two? For K-8 (probably anything being learned in HS as well) the content being taught shouldn’t be something that becomes out of date . Math, English, History…. A used textbook for a decade will last longer than this year’s chrome book. What happened to textbooks being handed out and returned at the end of the year.

The skeptic in me wonders if teachers like online pdfs bc there is no accountability. Parents have no idea what is supposed to be covered vs what actually is covered. And I find the most vulnerable students cannot absorb the material on the screen. Setting the academically disadvantaged even further behind.

Anonymous wrote:Curious if part of the reason for no textbooks is that it makes it more difficult for parents and tutors to be involved in homework.

Textbooks are expensive and quickly become outdated. No reason to add that expense to your budget with how accessible everything is online. Plus other than the most traditional school, the model of the teacher at the front of the classroom lecturing to students from a textbook is really no longer used. Many schools prefer to use a more hands-on approach that textbooks do not lend themselves well to.

Textbooks are expensive, go out of date quickly and need to be repurchased every year or two. Schools have shifted to being a free for all. It's a disaster. You would think that private schools, with much more money than publics, would be willing to spend some of that tuition money on textbooks, but unfortunately they are more focused on their endowments and facilities. It's a sad day.

Curious if part of the reason for no textbooks is that it makes it more difficult for parents and tutors to be involved in homework.

Anonymous wrote:No textbooks to bring home is totally normal now.

In public school it is. My kid went to Catholic MS and HS and had textbooks for math, foreign language, grammar, vocabulary (workbook), science, history.

St. Louis has text books.

The digital textbooks are nice for world languages. You can click on phrases or videos imbedded in the book and hear native speakers. It is a definite improvement.

I'm generally against computers in the classroom but my MS kid just started using e-textbooks and I like it. The text or problem set is online; the notes or work is done on paper. It is impossible to forget your homework. Kids can read ahead in the textbook or watch supplemental videos that are linked but optional. And it's not heavy, or hard to update if errors are found.