Letters: Textbook Messaging

Textbook Messaging

I once interviewed Denmark's minister of education and was fascinated to learn that teachers and administrators there are routinely given a leave of absence to write slender curriculum booklets based on passions of a lifetime and several months' intensive research ("The Muddle Machine: Confessions of a Textbook Editor," November/December). Danish teachers select from among hundreds of these topical or thematic booklets: The choices abound! And even though Danish students typically enroll in about twelve courses at a time, their book bags are still light enough to let them walk without stooping.

Molly Schen

The Muddle Machine

In Australia, they do not buy into the textbook industry ("The Muddle Machine: Confessions of a Textbook Editor"). Teachers there are given the money and time to develop their own, up-to-date, relevant units of study.

That's such a refreshing view of education compared to the cookbook method in the United States.

Laurie Martin

"The Muddle Machine: Confessions of a Textbook Editor" was unfair to the majority of publishing professionals who do a great job of meeting the needs of a variety of audiences, and the suggestion that we let teachers assemble their own curricula is unreasonable. Have one of your staff put together a complete social studies curriculum using only the resources available to the typical teacher in a regular public school, with the teacher's available budget. You'll discover that it's a full-time job that leaves no time for teaching.

We can always do a better job of developing instructional materials. There's no need, however, to belittle the efforts of the people who are doing it today. It can be easy to believe, sometimes, that there is a massive conspiracy to destroy public education, pauperize teachers, fill the prisons, and create a nation of droids that serve the military-industrial complex. Tamim Ansary's article reinforces that kind of mis-characterization and does a disservice to everyone involved.

Michael Milone

As a former mathematics teacher and former assistant principal of curriculum and instructional services in a number of local schools, I'm reminded by Tamim Ansary's article of the frustrations I felt as an educator with limited choices in curriculum.

Yet there is hope; in this age of consolidation, there remain small publishers striving to succeed in targeted markets. Recently I joined "the industry" and now work for Key Curriculum Press, a publisher dedicated to bringing innovative mathematics textbooks to schools nationwide. Key's materials are designed to actively engage students in conceptual understanding, as well as mathematical mechanics. This approach is made possible because Key advocates authentic authorship of its materials.

Our authors, not editors, begin book development by considering current pedagogical research, core mathematics principles, and their own experience as classroom teachers and leaders in the mathematics community. The materials are field tested for at least a year. It takes Key longer than traditional publishers to bring a product to market, but by the time it does, we are certain the materials work in the classroom.

Although small, we are confident that high-quality content, built upon principles and research, will be the choice of innovative and committed teachers and schools.

There are a few publishers, albeit a diminishing number, that place efficacy in the classroom at the heart of their efforts.

Jim Ryan

In "The Muddle Machine: Confessions of a Textbook Editor," you hit on the core issue for teacher longevity, or lack thereof.

In California, we are in the midst of a dumbing-down process for teachers and students alike. Our classroom materials are so scripted and bland that the creative process of really teaching has become a covert operation. We go under the district and state radar to create standards-based curriculum that is meaningful for our students. Forget an interactive map that students can use to explore our world. No time. Instead, prep for a test that evaluates a student's ability to regurgitate information doled out to them in textbooks by the same company that publishes the standardized tests these kids take!

I am required to be on a particular page, addressing a particular standard, on any given day of the school year. Pacing guides tell me what problems to assign on each page, for each activity.

High-stakes testing has dictated textbook adoption in California. New teachers being trained here only know how to teach using these textbooks. Good teachers are being forced to teach using curriculum that allows very little room for any teacher-created materials or materials like your article mentioned, which should be available to teachers and students.

Instead of stacking $25,000 worth of textbooks and workbooks in my room, ask me what I need. Maybe I need to explore resources with other intelligent colleagues. Maybe I need time to plan a unit that brings my students and their community together for a greater good.

Sometimes I feel like teachers are viewed as vehicles to deliver curriculum, but we aren't allowed to drive.

Gina Bamberger

Your article on textbooks fits in with a proposal I have made to the state of California: require textbook publishers to convert textbooks to CD or DVD. The ramifications of this conversion would further support recommendations made by Karen Epper Hoffman ("Still Weighty: The Long Road to Lighter Packs," November/December) and Tamim Ansary, because backpacks would certainly be lighter, and smaller publishers or individuals could easily publish materials for use in the various segments of a subject area.

Children without computers at home would be provided with one, and the cost would be paid off in less than two years without changing existing textbook budgets. Thereafter, school districts could reduce textbook costs by almost 50 percent. What could California's 1,500 school districts do with that much money?

Bob Kawka

Weight a Minute

The solution to heavy backpacks is fairly simple: Put textbooks on CD or DVD. The majority of households have a personal computer at home. For those that don't, the option of a paper textbook could always be available. But for those families with the technology, a textbook on disc is a perfect and less-expensive solution. Cheaper publication and distribution costs could well save the districts enough money to give loaner laptops to families that have a child in the district. A student could carry an entire library of textbooks in a small lunch box.

Julie Thornberry

In Good Company

The last thing in print that was this exciting was the premier issue of Wired magazine. You are honestly talking about education as it should be. Most publications are catering to the current status quo world of the No Child Left Behind Act -- just doing a better job of preparing children for the 1950s. But your message is speaking to what teachers intuitively know should be happening in their classrooms right now.

David Warlick

Wanna Bet?

In your roster of former U.S. secretaries of education ("Secretarial Pool: A Role Defined," November/December), you listed William Bennett's current gig as "attempting to reestablish credibility after gambling away millions of dollars." This comment was inappropriate and unprofessional. You could just as easily have said, "Hosts a morning talk radio show heard throughout the country." This would have been both accurate and objective.

David Luginbuhl

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