This is just depressing. I read this in the NY Post this weekend...well, just read it and weepManhattan school is trashing all its textbooks.
Whaaat?? Teachers having to hide books to "prevent them from being taken"?? This is insane! And the idea that math textbooks could ever be "antiquated" is absurd. At the very least, the adminstrators could pack them up and send them to the other schools who are begging for textbooks! The good news is that, at least some of the students are smart enough to pick them up and taking them home to use.
Okay, I love books as my shelves and shelves of them will attest. I see a book in the trash...well, who throws away books?? Donate them to charity, give them to a friend, sell them to a used book store, but throw them away? That's a crime to me. [Okay, maybe burning "The Exorcist" is okay, but that is it!]
And I honestly tried to go digital with books. What's better than being able to carry 50 books around and being able to read anyone of them at any time at a touch of button, right? Well, it's just not the same as reading a real book. It's not the same as reading words on a page. Maybe it's turning real pages, or the smell or weight. But like studies that reveal that writing by hand is more lasting to memory than typing on a computer, maybe reading words on a page connects to the memory better too. What happens when there's a giant power failure and all of the e-books disappear?
This is scary. It is the first step into the long road to the new Dark Ages. H.G. Wells predicted this in "The Time Machine". Remember that 1960's movie when the Time Traveller (Rod Taylor) travels to the future and lands in this beautiful place with beautiful people running around in little togas? Yeah, remember the scene where he goes into the "library" and touches one of the books and it falls to dust? That's what happens when you don't appreciate real books! The Morlocks will use you as food!!!
Okay, I dare you to disagree...
“They made an announcement that they were getting rid of the books because they were antiquated and outdated, and we should be using new technology,” a teacher said. “I hid some of my books to prevent them being taken.”
Whaaat?? Teachers having to hide books to "prevent them from being taken"?? This is insane! And the idea that math textbooks could ever be "antiquated" is absurd. At the very least, the adminstrators could pack them up and send them to the other schools who are begging for textbooks! The good news is that, at least some of the students are smart enough to pick them up and taking them home to use.
Okay, I love books as my shelves and shelves of them will attest. I see a book in the trash...well, who throws away books?? Donate them to charity, give them to a friend, sell them to a used book store, but throw them away? That's a crime to me. [Okay, maybe burning "The Exorcist" is okay, but that is it!]
And I honestly tried to go digital with books. What's better than being able to carry 50 books around and being able to read anyone of them at any time at a touch of button, right? Well, it's just not the same as reading a real book. It's not the same as reading words on a page. Maybe it's turning real pages, or the smell or weight. But like studies that reveal that writing by hand is more lasting to memory than typing on a computer, maybe reading words on a page connects to the memory better too. What happens when there's a giant power failure and all of the e-books disappear?
This is scary. It is the first step into the long road to the new Dark Ages. H.G. Wells predicted this in "The Time Machine". Remember that 1960's movie when the Time Traveller (Rod Taylor) travels to the future and lands in this beautiful place with beautiful people running around in little togas? Yeah, remember the scene where he goes into the "library" and touches one of the books and it falls to dust? That's what happens when you don't appreciate real books! The Morlocks will use you as food!!!
Okay, I dare you to disagree...
There are parts of the world where textbooks like that would be a pleasure. I guess the schools don't think about that.
ReplyDeleteBev, I love books. I like to hold them, write notes in the margins, circle and underline things. I reread them later and look at the notes I made and see if I still feel the same way about things. I refuse to get a kindle. There is just a special uniqueness to books that you can't duplicate electronically. This is a sign of the apocalypse.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the middle on this.
ReplyDeleteThere should always be a place for physical books. Studies have shown that children take to reading from books far better than off of a screen. Plus, have you tried to read a picture book on an iPad? Doesn't work very well. That said, my daughter has pica with her autism, so paper books aren't the best thing for her to have. An ebook is better than no book, in that case.
Textbooks are crazy expensive (economies of scale). Even in digital format, they are way more expensive than popular fiction or the latest political diatribe. Plus, there's the issue of shelf-life as things go out-of-date. Even a third-grade math book can fall out-of-date as teaching methods change. Digital format books offer a way to combat these issues by bringing down the publishing price and offering a means to update content without buying a whole new book.
I don't think Kindles will pave the way for Morlocks. We take for granted the astonishing prevalence of books. Thirty copies of the same text just so each kid can have one on their desks!? Astounding! It wasn't long ago that the teacher taught from a single book while the kids wrote with chalk on slates. And not long before that that most kids didn't even go to school.
I think where things are lacking at the moment, but won't be for long, is that the technology isn't in place for the teacher to take command of a room full of tablets. Johnny's on YouTube while Kara and Whitney are texting. As soon as the teacher can lock everyone into the program and shut everything else down, we'll finally see technology as a legit teaching tool, and not just a way to play Oregon Trail when your spelling words are done.
Tryanmax - I am not saying that electronics aren't a legitimate tool for education at all! I am just saying that to toss out all of the books at a school just 'cause technology is the administration decided on its own only way to learn is just stupid. Especially since there are schools who would LOVE to take those books and use them.
ReplyDeleteAs you point out, different children have different ways they learn. And since this particular school doesn't even have the tech in place for the kids to us, it just seemed even more stupid to toss the books so 10 kids can cram around a single monitor or the teachers have to actually copy the lesson to hand out instead of say, using the already printed text...less trees die that way. YEY, ENVIRONMENT!!! WE LOVE TREES!
And yes, I agree throughout history, 99% of the population couldn't read/write or do math. And only a generation ago, not having a formal education (especially "higher") didn't mean all that much in the world.
And finally....And so too are there gonna be Morlocks 'causa IPads and stuff!!!
I read on my phone all the time. I've got a whole library on it. But there are things I would never use a computer for, like a text book.
ReplyDeleteI edit better on paper too than on screens.
I think it's stupid to make this kind of one-size-fits-all change. I guarantee you there are kids who need to be able to scan whole pages in ways you just can't do on a screen. But then, too many people like to force their preferences on everyone else.
We were talking about stupid journalists yesterday. Today, there's a lawyer who does sports now who is usually so wrong about the law I have to wonder if he even went to law school. Today he said "the Constitutional presumption of innocence" would keep the NFL from punishing for something he did before he was hired.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Not only does the presumption of innocence have nothing to do with avoiding punishment (it is about the burden of proof at trial), but it applies only to criminal prosecutions by the government. It has no possible application to the non-government world. Yet, this guy passes himself off as a legal expert.
Andrew - I LOVE to be able to download my newspapers without ever having to go outside or (okay) even get out of bed except to get my coffee. (I know, TMI) But honestly, tried to read on it...first I stopped reading myself to sleep, then stopped reading...seriously. Interestingly though, I can edit better on computer, but my typo/grammar detection is REALLY bad.
ReplyDeleteI like the permanence of real books. I found a copy of the Civics book we used when I was in the 3rd grade in Memphis. (Does anybody remember Civics?) It was neat to reread it...but I'm sure it would be very un-PC today, showing the early European explorers as heroes..but they were, warts and all. However, for textbooks I'm all for the digital stuff. Our local school system got rid of textbooks, bought I-Pads for every student...it does work and work well. The kids who read will always want paper books, the libraries on campus are stil as busy as ever.
ReplyDeleteThe conspiracy nut in me does wonder however if this will make it easier for the .gov to control things...I have the same view about a cashless society...
Andrew - Also, WHAT? So according to this attorney/expert it's "All Hail the NFL!" Once you sign that contract, you are handed a "get out of trouble" card from any civil and criminal wrong-doing in your past! Cool!
ReplyDeleteCritch - I guess what bothers me the most is that the admins did this without informing the teachers or parents. And without any preparation...say enough computers or Ipads for each student or teacher.
ReplyDeleteBev, aha! I didn't get from the post that the school was just ditching books for the sake of it. And I agree that they should pass the books along to other schools (so long as the US geography text isn't titled "Our Great 48").
ReplyDeleteCritch, if you want your inner conspiracy nut to be up nights, consider this: in most cases when you purchase an ebook, you're not really purchasing a copy of the book. You're merely purchasing rights to have the file on your device. It's more like a permanent loan.
ReplyDeleteI use my Kindle primarily to read free classics available on Amazon, and I'll "buy" a lot of free giveaways. I think I've only paid actual money for a dozen or so titles.
Tryanmax, I should've made that clear. See, this is what "talking it out" does!
ReplyDeleteBut you DO agree now that the Morlocks are coming, right? 8-D
Tryanmax - I have downloaded lots of free famous classics on my Ipad...just in case it's stolen, the thieves will think I am really smart and stuff. And then just in case I should become a famous YouTube sensation, nothing that could be "embarrassing"...
ReplyDeleteThe Morlocks are here already, Bev. They live at MSNBC.
ReplyDeleteI have a mix on my Kindle. I have a lot of free stuff and I'll buy books from time to do.
ReplyDeleteFor example, I've always wanted to read "Master and Commander" and it's on sale for $1.99 today, so I bought it. But I won't buy anything near the paperback price on Kindle on principle.
Forgot to add, I also use my Kindle to download library books without having to go to the library. Such a gilded age is ours.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter's middle school also doesn't have textbooks. Instead each student gets an ipad mini. It is actually amazing how fast she can type up a short essay on that thing. It comes with a nuclear blast proof protective case that makes it bulky and hard to read. She still uses my computer at home especially for projects. Many of the classes, such as social studies and science, have her make presentations rather than essays. The use an online google program for their word processing and presentation slides although now she is into using Prezi. Not sure if this will help or hurt her in the long run. So many universities have multiple books on-line, she can do a more thorough search from home than any of the local libraries (the local university library excluded, maybe). One of her instructors has spent a lot of time with the kids teaching them how to avoid plagiarism, which is very beneficial to them. She also can only use certain domains as references such as .edu. I wasn't taught any of this until late high school.
ReplyDeleteOnline text can also be much quicker and easily edited. Once it is in print, any mistake lasts forever. In the medical field, most docs of stopped buying text books because by the time they come out in print, the information is already 5 years old.
Our school board and administration talked about it for 2 years before implementing anything...they were thorough. The start went without hitch and it's still working...
ReplyDeleteMy kids' schools still use textbooks like cavemen :). I still own maybe a hundred physical books, but I own hundreds on my Kindle. I held out until the local Borders closed, but once I picked up my Kindle I loved it.
ReplyDeleteI miss Borders. Everyone I know liked them better than Barnes & Noble. There must've been structural problems that led to their closing, because they seemed like the more popular retailer.
ReplyDelete