School Textbooks

[Seven X]

How reliable are they? My Science textbooks has theories that have been debunked for a while, and it was missing like a page or two about DNA's structure discovery of Franklin, Watson, and Crick. It's a McDougal Littell Textbook.

One of my teachers said that high schools, at least high schools in my area, use middle school, 6th grade I think, level textbooks in high school. Now, is any of this true?

 

[OverdrivePrime]

Debunked? Like Canopy Theory or something?:laugh:

Anyway, yeah, it's quite likely that your science textbooks are out of date. Check the publication dates. Particularly check out the date of first publication. An unfortunate number of school book companies care too much about their bottom line to hire science editors to check if there is new information that supersedes the information printed in their books.

Additionally, if your school is starved for money and the voters in your area aren't exactly inclined to pass referendums that support education, you might just be stuck with ancient books. My wife had to teach with 25 year old books when she started teaching high school English. The books were older than she was. She had to go on a big campaign to get some more recent fresh material that didn't consist purely of dry writing by dead white dudes.

It's even worse for science. If your teacher isn't up on the cutting edge (and good lord, he/she should be! That's the job!) of what's new in science, it's really easy for the classroom to be left behind in the science of the 1970s or 1980s. We've come leaps and bounds in science since the 80s to the point that your average 5th grader should be learning stuff that we were getting in high school back in '91.

A good rule of thumb is that if your science book talks about Pluto as a planet, it's time to start asking hard questions.

 

[Mikazuki]

You need to keep in mind that schools obtaining new school text books run into two problems.

1) Cost. ONE elementary school book costs typically between $50 to $75 (schools typically pay near full price when buying in bulk). As a result most schools simply cannot afford to buy more or the latest version of a textbook.

2) Publishing. Sometimes a new edition/revision is not published on a yearly basis but rather every few years. But even if one has been published the school might run in to financial cost.

My eldest daughter's music books (Essential Elements 2000 books 1 & 2 cost $10.95 each) was written in 2000 and contains errors. The publisher and author of the book acknowledges the error but has not issued a revision of the music book nor plans on releasing a revision of said book until 2010.

My other daughter's BRAND NEW book, On Your Mark, Level 3-2: Trophies Series (0153224770) has a list price of $50 through BN.com. I'm going to have to replace it since she brought it home over the Spring Break and it was ruined when she left it on the floor and her brothers (the twins) decided it was a coloring book.

But suffice it to say due to the cost of the books and the publishing companies, textbooks in elementary through high school maybe (and are) out of date.

Whose fault is this? Not the taxpayers. It is typically the government's fault for not providing more money towards education all the while the politicians continue to vote for pay increases. Where does the politicians fat paycheck come from? The money the taxpayers pay. If the politicians weren't so greedy and allotted that money to education then schools could afford new textbooks.

It's even worse for science. If your teacher isn't up on the cutting edge (and good lord, he/she should be! That's the job!) of what's new in science, it's really easy for the classroom to be left behind in the science of the 1970s or 1980s.

That's kind of unfair because many science teachers are not scientists nor are trained to be science teachers in the first place. Due to a shortage of teachers that specialize in science, many schools make due with teachers who go on to take more classes to fill those spots. Blame the school districts for not hiring qualified teachers but blame the government first since they don't provide the money needed to hire qualified teachers to begin with.

 

[GekiBlack]

School Textbooks are just a waste of money.

 

[OverdrivePrime]

That's kind of unfair because many science teachers are not scientists nor are trained to be science teachers in the first place. Due to a shortage of teachers that specialize in science, many schools make due with teachers who go on to take more classes to fill those spots. Blame the school districts for not hiring qualified teachers but blame the government first since they don't provide the money needed to hire qualified teachers to begin with.

I'll mostly agree with that. I think it's a disgusting shame that school districts don't seek out qualified science teachers to teach science. And if there aren't enough, I'm totally in favor of financial incentives in college to help teach people to become qualified math and science teachers. I would still suggest that even if a person doesn't have the proper training, if their job is to teach science, they should use some of their prep periods to keep up on the latest developments in science that would be applicable to their classroom.

Personally, I'd prefer if the entire teaching profession ditched the union and went to merit-based pay, but I do understand the reasons why the unions are still around.

But anyway, yeah - if you've got an outdated science book, look up the concepts on your own to make sure that you've got the latest and greatest information.

 

[Mikazuki]

Personally, I'd prefer if the entire teaching profession ditched the union and went to merit-based pay, but I do understand the reasons why the unions are still around.

I have to agree with that but for other reasons. Unions typically protect everyone including teachers who have abused students physically and mentally but that's a whole different subject. If there were no more teachers unions then getting rid of a pedophile WITHOUT first having to pay him/her off would be easier as a new teacher's contract could be written that if they have been arrested then they can be terminated without pay. Right now if a teacher, in my area, is arrested for sexual crimes against a minor, they are put on administrative leave with pay.

 

[OverdrivePrime]

Yeah, that's another reason I'm unhappy with the teacher's union. The union could serve a good purpose, but they fight tooth and nail to protect the job of every teacher. And sometimes it seems like they fight hardest to protect the slackers and dirtbags.

As for the merit pay thing, it just drives me nuts that my wife puts in an average of 70-80 hours a week on her students, either through teaching, preparation, grading, helping out with after-school projects, the yearbook, fund raising, etc. - and she gets paid the exact same as a gym teacher who puts in 40 hours a week and has no work to take home.

 

[VengeanceGOD]

Whoa whoa, hang on, back up here. Merit pay is a TERRIBLE idea. Teachers being paid based on their student's performance might work in cushy suburban schools, but in the places that actually need the money and the teachers, like inner city schools and special ed programs, all it would do is make the problem worse. The kids who need the most help would get even less of it.

Kind of like No Child Left Behind, which is already starting this problem.

 

[Z-Unit]

That's why I write all the right answers and fix the errors and sell the books to underclassmen when I'm done for the year.

 

[Mikazuki]

Whoa whoa, hang on, back up here. Merit pay is a TERRIBLE idea. Teachers being paid based on their student's performance might work in cushy suburban schools, but in the places that actually need the money and the teachers, like inner city schools and special ed programs, all it would do is make the problem worse. The kids who need the most help would get even less of it.

Kind of like No Child Left Behind, which is already starting this problem.

No, no. Not merit pay based on the students performance but rather by their hours and their position. A gym teacher who works 40 hrs per week should not be paid the same as a science teacher who works 80+ hours.