While I do realize that my last post pertained to
textbooks, an opportunity to rant about them has presented itself yet again.
Chapter 3 of Daniels' and Zemelman's book "Subjects Matter" delves
quite deeply into education's hot button topic; textbooks. A majority of the
chapter is dedicated to why textbooks are "bad things". Granted,
there are some pieces of advice on how to get the best out of a textbook if a
teacher is forced into using one for their lessons, but on the whole, the
chapter discusses how they are a hinderance in the classroom. Although it is a
seemingly negative chapter, I tend to share the same sentiments as Daniels and
Zemelman.
Before I could even turn the first page I found
myself questioning and highlighting. I suppose it was some mild form of
"textbook-PTSD" that had me in a frenzy. I remember quite vividly how
loathsome my peers and I were towards the four hundred paged, fifty pound,
relics. I remember one of my classmates found his mom's name in a textbook from
when she was a student at our high school. Ironic then, impossible to think
now. What on earth is a teacher doing, teaching out of a book that was
published when they were in college? And then for some classes we carried
around books that we barely ever used. This is more similar to my college
experience. I have run out of fingers for the amount of textbooks a professor
has mandated that I purchase and then neglects to use them throughout the
entirety of the semester. I wonder how often this is happening in high schools
across America.
I sense myself starting to rant, so I figure it
best to pull some quotes from what I read and to write my commentary about the
topic...
On page 52, Daniels and Zemelman accuse texts books of being
superficial. I could not agree more. The weight, length, and size of textbooks
are unnecessary. Rather than students lugging around bulging backpacks,
teachers should be reviewing textbooks, using the best material and providing
it for their students. The commitment to teaching an entire course based off of
the contents of a single textbook is immensely limiting to a student’s learning
potential.
An even worse example of restricting a student’s learning is raised on
page 46 of Subjects Matter. Daniels
and Zemelman reported an account that the state of Illinois made it illegal to
spend state book money on anything except commercially published text books.
This issue will always be beyond me. The purpose of education is to provide our
students with the necessary resources to succeed. When a state limits the
amount of resources available to a school, a huge disservice is paid to our
students. This just becomes another hindrance towards teacher’s efforts in
differentiated learning.
A counter example of the latter shows another flaw in the education
system in regards to textbooks. In another account provided by Daniels and
Zemelman, in 2012, the State of Louisiana’s Department of Education forbid the
use of textbooks in its schools. AGAIN. Limiting. As if the limit of student
learning potential wasn’t enough, this provides a classic example of the
educational pendulum like paradigm shift. Rather than trying to adapt textbook
usage and find a way to make them beneficial to instructors and students alike,
they are abandoned. It’s time to end the limitations on source material.
I propose that our generation of students band together as “baby
textbookers.” (Forgive the horrible “Baby Boomer” pun – I’m sure someone can
come up with a more suitable name). Anyway, we have all had some sort of bad
experience with a textbook in some form or another. As aspiring teachers we
should vow to not do the same thing to our future students as was done to us. Let’s
amend the textbook misusage.
On a lighter note, I included this video that shows some textbook charity. We all know how expensive the bookstore can get. I wish more people did things like this...
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