In IN we have to pay a fee for books, yet we get no say in what books they use. When I was a kid we had ten year old textbooks. Now they get new every year and get tons of "throw away" work books and stuff. It burns me up because of the corps that are essentially making the rules for everyone else. And at the same time we are firing teachers to save money.

 

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It's a sticky issue to be honest. The curriculum should be reasonably "standard" but nobody can agree on what it should be. Teaching methods should be if not standard, at least have uniform requirements upon them, but nobody can agree on those either. Meanwhile, textbook publication remains a racket (think about it in college and then apply it to the much more massive scale public education system).

When I was a kid we had dittos (not photocopies) of worksheets and we had notepaper to do our work on. We had 10 year old text books and excellent teachers.

 

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I wouldn't mind as much, but I have a buddy that works at a publisher and the stories he tells are absurd. I also started working at a gov't contractor last year and never has intentional stupid and lazy been more profitable.

I just think this particular hybrid of parents paying for books is REALLY bad. Because whatever little onus there is on the school board to save money goes away because theya ren't paying for it. It seems wrong that the cost is a pass through when the decision is made by other people getting free dinners and oriental massages with a happy ending. If I'm paying for a handy I WANT THE HANDY!

 

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Well, it's not as if there's any surprise here really right? I mean, whenever you make any entity no longer fiscally responsible, they stop... you know... being fiscally responsible.

Parents in the nation have bought in totally to the latest manipulative tool: making everything "about the children".

Certainly I don't believe we should throw our children under the bus, but this just another in the long list of abuses being perpetrated on Americans under the guise of being "for the children".

 

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It is pretty sickening. Working for the gubmint you see the good it does but also the evil things people do to take advantage of the system.

I'm sure it happens in the private sector too but when it's other people's money it just makes it that much easier.

The US government can do a lot of things better by developing internal capacity to do things. Text books are a fine example of this. The US government(fed, state, loca) must spend a ridiculous amount on books every year between all the different groups and I am sure if the government just did it they could provide higher quality and more choices.


Same goes of technology IMO. Nothing like having a massive patchwork of computer systems.

 

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The image of government bureaucracy overseen by politically motivated appointees controlling the development and publishing of educational materials on a national scale is almost as scary as leaving it in the hands of school boards to approve the materials.

 

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We have to send our kids to school with their own toilet paper. We do get to choose which brand, though, so that's something.

 

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It doesn't end after elementary school.

Book companies come out with new editions of the same book yearly now it seems, and all classes require the latest edition.

 

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It could be set up more like the university system is or a quasi public. Worst case scenario is that the school board chooses a private company.

 

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