http://www.edutopia.org/muddle-machine
That's a very long, but also very interesting account from a textbook editor. He talks about how the textbook companies have become corporatized (there's only really four left, only one American), and the process they go through of producing/censoring textbooks for schools.
I've read through about a third so far, and it's pretty interesting. I'm gonna email a link to all of my old high school teachers.
I feel the free market would solve this: if we had schools that neither the states nor the feds would interfere with, just a completely free market form of K-12 schooling where the schools can hire and fire teachers freely (firing an inept teacher is an incredibly long process that usually ends with getting sued), where the teachers can choose what text book to teach with, and with the state government providing you with a voucher to choose which school you wish to enroll in, for no cost.
Holy. Crap.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_and_Norma_Gabler
I had no idea that textbooking was such a politicized process. I mean I knew people hated some books, tried to get them pulled, but I didnt know there were huge associations dedicated to polarizing the textbook market.
Quote from: CrAz3D on May 09, 2009, 02:38:48 PM
Holy. Crap.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_and_Norma_Gabler
I had no idea that textbooking was such a politicized process. I mean I knew people hated some books, tried to get them pulled, but I didnt know there were huge associations dedicated to polarizing the textbook market.
And they'd like to keep it that way. You can't fight what you don't know!