Reply #23: My daughter votes with a resounding no

[exboyfil]

She is very computer literate, but can not stand reading textbooks off the computer. Something like a Kindle might work a little better.

The biggest problem I have with textbooks is that they are poorly written, do not adequately cover the important material, and spend far too much time on unimportant material (look at an Algebra book for example). They have time for lots of writeups about careers etc, but don't do very many example problems. It is seeing example problems worked that is the best teacher for the material.

I think we could go to open source textbooks that can be printed in packets by subject. In many cases a large amount of material is repeat from year to year (like in math). Such packets would be far more useful, much less expensive, and done cheaply enough (hole punched to fit into a spiral) could be retained by the student for future reference (this would be very useful for math, science, grammar, and foreign languages). Our school system does not even let the kids take home their grammar book because they only have enough copies for one class (this is ridiculous).

Don't get me started about the heaviness of the textbooks. My daughter has four academic subjects that see has to bring home nightly and each textbook is as large as my Physics I textbook from college. Her backpack is enourmous. She also has a large spiral and a reading book for English (I guess I should feel fortunate she does not have to haul the grammar book as well).