Last week, I posted a diary about trying to run a science classroom on $2.87 per student per year -- thank you for all who participated. This week, I'd like to talk about how we don't give our children textbooks, anymore.
For the the last decade or so, we have answered the question -- "Butter or bullets?" -- with bullets. But, I wonder how many parents and other educational supporters know that this choice means we chose taxcuts and bombs over text books for our children?
Back in the day, I was issued my own textbook for every class. During the first days of school we went through the ritual of adding our names to the printed tables in the books checking to see who had "our" book before us. Then, we went through the step by step process of covering each of text with grocery paper bag covers. With colored pencils, we'd creatively write the topic on the front, and as we'd curiously preview what was inside each book getting a sense of what the year might hold, we were allowed to draw some pictures on the front to illustrate the course topics. I still remember the smell and feel of those crisp coverings that became softer and a bit dog-earred over the course of the year. It would have been unthinkable for a student not to be given their own textbook.
As we folded and colored the brown paper into protective covers, the book-check-out form would wind its way though the classroom, and we'd add our names and our book number. We'd also add our signature to indicate that we pledged to take good care of the book we were being trusted with for the year. This was taken seriously, since we knew we could be charged for damages. LOL we always inspected our books carefully raising our hands to point out any tears to be mended ... and any bad words that needed to be erased.
The message was clear: This is YOUR book. This is the content that YOU are expected to learn, this year. YOU are being empowered to so. YOU are expected to value and care for this collection of knowledge, this year.
The trend away from books for every student to "classroom sets" seems to have begun in the 1990's, but it really accelerated in the 2000's. As far as I can tell talking with the many teachers I have contact with across the nation, classroom sets are now the norm.
As a teacher and a parent, I think this fundamental change has had a BIG effect on educational outcomes from a number of very important perspectives. In fact, I think it just might be the single most important contributor (at least one of the top 3) in terms of educational losses and yet, I am not seeing many (if any) people even talking about -- let alone being outraged by it
Follow below the fold, for my thinking about the effects of the loss of textbooks for students has had on a generation of students ... parents and the current state of our civil society.
In 2007, the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) issued a study about the decline in reading by Americans. Some findings:
Americans are reading less - teens and young adults read less often and for shorter amounts of time compared with other age groups and with Americans of previous years.
Less than one-third of 13-year-olds are daily readers, a 14 percent decline from 20 years earlier. Among 17-year-olds, the percentage of non-readers doubled over a 20-year period, from nine percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004.1
On average, Americans ages 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading.2
As I was growing up, we usually had a homework reading assignment in each subject 2-3 times a week. We'd be expected to put our butts in a chair, at home, and read a section out of our textbook. As we read, we were expected to take notes -- typically, we were expected to summarize the key point in each paragraph and write out any definitions for bolded words. Then, we'd answer the 3-5 questions at the end of the section. I remember the assignments taking about 15-30 minutes -- one side of peice of notebook paper. (Mom or Dad checked for full sentences, spelling, completeness ... sometimes even talked about the content with me.)
The results:
1. I independently read, practiced my summarizing skills, and reading comprehension of non-fiction reading, across a variety of subjects, everyday for at least 30 minutes.
2. I learned the self-discipline needed to keep my own butt in a chair, as a self-directed learner. THIS is one of the key non-tested fundamentals of becoming a true scholar.
3. I learned that I could learn on my own! I learned that if I didn't know something that I could seek out a book (or now, on-line source) and learn for myself.
4. If I was struggling with a principle or concept, I could ask a parent for help. The phrase, "Let me see your book," used to be a common phrase in American homes. After purusing the section, my mother or father would ususally say something like, "Oh, I remember this ... it's like this ..." As parents raised children, it was almost as if adults across the nation had a chance to once again review their own educations!
5. Mostly, we understood that WE as learners had a very real, on-going responsibility to be active pareticipants in our education. The teacher was NOT the only source of knowledge in the world.
6. I became an increasingly masterful reader, so reading fiction was easy and fun for me, which started a postive cycle of reading more and more.
7. Finally, from that first day when I lugged home that pile of books, and shared with my parents with some pride, wonder, and fear, "Look what they expect us to learn, this year!" ... I and my parents were empowered with the big-picture of what was expected and would be the curriculum focus in each class for that year.
In school, the day after a homework with textbook reading assignment, teachers were able to build upon the self-learning, lead discussions and debates, do hands on activities to elaborate ... the content was not new news ... and we built upon the foundation the textbook provided. Oh yeah, some students didn't do their homework, but there was a standard solution. We had reading benches at recess for students who needed to read the assigned sections or lunch detention where the text assignment was read while eating. If it became a pattern, there were after-school detentions and pre-school breakfast meet-ups for homework help ... And if needed, meetings with parents. BUT, we actually had very few kids who didn't do their homework. It just wasn't a big deal. Frankly, most of us learned to use the 20 minutes on the bus to get most of it started, if not done, anyway. :)
Plus, if a student was ill for a few days, a teacher could call home and have a student use their textbook to keep up ... or have their book retrieved from a locker to be sent home. Again, students were expected to keep up, if they were absent, and there was the implicit expectation that this was the student's and parent's responsibility as integral, empowered partners in the learning process.
School to home and back, again, learning was continuous, expected, communal, a common expectation, a partnership -- and certainly not compartmentalized.
Today, with only classroom sets:
1. The teacher and school become the primary (only) source of learning. Teachers as keepers of the miserly small set of resources (28 classroom textbooks that get shared in classes of 32 in 4-5 classes across 120-130 students each day) have effectively become the only resource empowered group.
2. The message that books are sources of knowledge aquisition that student can and are expected to use on their own as self-directed learners actively engaged in their our learning process is lost.
3. Independent reading practice is not regularly happening, and reading skill scores continue to drop.
4. Howework (if any is even assigned) is too frequently a worksheet sent home with no resource for either the student or parent. As a parent, I could really use a textbook, so I could help our son with his algebra assignments! Even as a middle school science teacher, I frankly do not remember every thing about doing algebra. So, we are left with trying to hunt the web for help ... But with only 60% of the students in our district (35% Free and Reduced Lunch Suburb) having access to the web with a functional computer --- what are these students and parents doing?
5. Parents miss out on reviewing their own educational experience by way of not participating in what used to be a regular part of life --- looking over their childrens' homework and textbooks.
6. Without being able to peruse a course textbook, I doubt most parents have any real idea what is being taught in schools at all, anymore. Parents may see a paper here or there, get a few words about what was learned, today, if they are lucky. But without being able to scan a table of contents -- how could any parent know what is going on comprehensively?
7. Long gone are the days, when parents leaned over young shoulders at the kitchen table and said phrases like, "I remember this ... read that section out loud and read me the question, again." Or, "yeah, this sounds familiar, read the 4th and 5th Amendment, again, outloud ... yeah, think of the difference like this ... " How much continuuous, informal education is no longer being done in this nation?
When we stopped giving students their own textbooks for each course, we effectively disempowered both parents and students as key, important stakeholders when it comes to learning outside the schools.
Is it any wonder that homework has been discontinued or discounted as a useful educational practice, anymore? Self-directed, individual learning useless? Bullshit.
is it any wonder that children whose minds wandered for a bit during class end up melting down when they are tasked with practicing something they failed to learn in class and they have no way to help themselves learn it at home?
Is it any wonder that exhausted parents prefer to forego "homework hell on the homefront" when we give them nothing to help them with this responsibility?
Is it any wonder that reading scores are dropping, and without reading skills, other content area learning results are also dropping?
Is it any wonder that college students are arriving in college without the expectation that they really ought to be able to read the required reading assignments and come prepared for more complex discussions and lectures in class?
Is it any wonder that the country is angry with us, as teachers, when we have effectively been forced to become the primary source of learning -- as the keepers of the few resources this country is willing to provide our children, anymore?
Yet, I see very few people even mentioning this fundamental change in our educational system. If anyone knows of a study out there, please, please share it with me.
I have ONE study with a very small sample size experiment. Last year, I managed to scrounge up enough old, retired texts in science and language arts for the dual content I was teaching last year. (10 year old textbooks -- and no, at the 6th grade level the basic science concepts were still okay and not really that outdated -- the rock cycle is the rock cycle!). I sent the textbooks home and tried the "old way" of doing things.
Results:
1. Parents were THRILLED!! I received an email from almost every parent thanking me.
2. Our group of students Scantron test scores in reading at the beginning of the year averaged 11% the 6th grade average. At the end of the year, the 6th grade average on Scantron reading improvement was 60 points and our students improved 108 points -- nearly double.
3. The only significant difference I made was giving every student a BOOK, teaching them how to do simple independent reading homework assignments, and then, I pretty much ran mostly the same classroom experiences that the other teachers in our school did.
I have a simple hypothesis that I would like to see investigated: If we stop giving students their own textbooks, then reading scores will drop.
It shouldn't even be a difficult study to do. Chart the sales of texbooks (numbers of books) against reading scores.
In the meantime, as a teacher and parent, I am beginning to wonder how in the hell I could somehow change this -- to start some sort of movement? -- to just get every one of American students their own textbook for each class, again. Books they could take home and leave at home until the end of the year ... with a classroom set to share in class. For the reasons in my rant above, I think it is that important and that it could be the single, best "un-reform" we could make without too much difficulty.
A couple of things to counter some anticipated counter-arguments before I end:
1a. No, giving every kid a Kindle is NOT the same ... giving millions of school kids electronic gadgets to carry with them everyday gives me the willy's safety-wise
1b. ... plus being able to flip back and forth with physical pages while hunting down answers and supporting facts, that can be touched, IS an extremely good instructional practice for concrete thinkers.
2. Yes, I know some more trees will be killed, but trees are a renewable resources and books have a regular usage life of 5-7 years, so 1 book would serve 5-7 students. I could get into a national jobs effort to plant more trees for books for kids!
3. Yes, I know this would cost us more money, so how about we stop paying the corporate ed/ publishing creeps $30-50 bucks a test and tell them we'll keep giving them money for books instead of tests? We actually can do the freaking tests on-line and get faster results that might be better used to help student real time!
4. Yes, every one of us in the old days probably had a couple or even few teachers who were lazy and relied entirely on the textbook. It was read and drill time every day. But, I have a question about that -- where were the administrators whose job it is to retrain or fire such poor performers? No, unions do not prevent the firing of bad teachers; they do ensure due process, just like our justice system does. Plus, even in those classes (Coach Danforth's US Government class comes to my mind), I never-the-less did learn the Declaration of Independence, 3 branches, balance of powers, and the Constitution. In fact, I'd even argue I learned it pretty damn well since I had to closely read the major documents to pass the textbook exams! Having the textbook actually saved the year for me, and it prepared me to succeed in college despite getting more than a few instructors who were great researchers and lousy teachers.
Finally, coming back to the study I started with, this fall off in reading has important implications for us as a civil society:
The declines in reading have civic, social, and economic implications – Advanced readers accrue personal, professional, and social advantages. Deficient readers run higher risks of failure in all three areas.
Nearly two-thirds of employers ranked reading comprehension "very important" for high school graduates. Yet 38 percent consider most high school graduates deficient in this basic skill.6
American 15-year-olds ranked fifteenth in average reading scores for 31 industrialized nations, behind Poland, Korea, France, and Canada, among others.7
Literary readers are more likely than non-readers to engage in positive civic and individual activities – such as volunteering, attending sports or cultural events, and exercising.8
So, if you have the time and have read this far, thank you. I'd love to hear from other teachers, educational supporters and detractors, tax-payers (all 100% of US), and fellow citizens ...