One for Good Luck
I turned 34 today, which I think merits new writing, as opposed to just posting old memes that would otherwise rot on my hard drive, but I haven't been able to decide on a subject. After all, there's so much to choose from:
UPDATE: The link above no longer works, so has been removed.
The adoption system under which our educational system purchases textbooks is a national disgrace. As the article points out, the largest state adopters wield a disproportionate amount of influence over textbook content. This means Texas gets to determine the content for health textbooks all over the country. This is Not Good, at least from the point of view of, "Uh, what do I do if I failed at the whole abstinance thing?" After all, the educational system should be able to come up with a little better answer than, "Well, you burn in Hell like the evil fornicating whore you are, Tina dear." The ideal of chastity as espoused in Christianity is all well and good, but teenagers fuck, whether we like to admit it or not. Giving them a little preparation (and I'm not asking for fisting manuals, a la the New York Post article of several years ago, just some common sense dos and don'ts), instead of egregious dumbassery will save or improve the lives of many, many young people.
Lest you think this article is all Lefty alarmism, please note that I worked for Prentice Hall for much of 2001, and I have experienced this. I worked on an Econ textbook that was being updated for, you guessed it, Texas adoption. There was a chapter on the role of unions in economic development. It was originally written from the point of view of a former Massachusetts educator. Ever see the Star Wars episode of The Muppet Show? It went over about as well as Angus McGonnagal the Argyle Gargoyle who Gargles Gershwin. I can understand that, though. Massachusetts' views do not alwasy mirror the mainstream. The author then rewrote the chapter to better represent both sides of the union issue. PH took it back to the adoption committee and said, "That's better, right?" The representative of the commmitee said-and this is a direct quote-"I would not allow my child to attend a school in which this book was used." Texas was not satisfied until the chapter on unions was reduced to, "And for a while there were labor unions, but they were an evil communist plot and went away." Now, Prentice Hall swore the National editions wouldn't read that way. But you know what? Making textbooks is 'spensive. Even replacing a few pages can run to a lot of dough during the paging process. If deadlines were tight, the National books would have gone out with the Texas text.
That's not the only problem though. One of the other problems, also outlined in the article, is the timing of new editions. If a major adopter decides to shift their date, or a dumbass corporation gets caught with its pants down and a competitor primed to seize major market share, the publisher has to shift the timing of their new edition. This can result (and has resulted) in meeting a California adoption date by compressing the two-year production schedule for a new Literature program-to pick an example not totally at random-to an unhappy seven months (the seven months I was at PH, to be precise). The end result? Shitty books. Shitty books your kids are learning from because a major publisher can't afford to take the time to do it right, because if they do, they're shut out of a major market for five years at the least. And the shitty books that California buys are the shitty books that get shipped to New York and Kentucky and Illinois and New Mexico, because it's way expensive to redo books in the middle of a print run, especially when the other markets are less remunerative. Think all this is helping the kids? Cos I don't.
How to deal? Well, if you homeschool, here's a simple answer: Don't use textbooks from major publishers. Ever. They're all part of the system and they all have the same pressures and blind spots. Find texts you're comfortable with from smaller companies. I spent four months working for a small textbook publisher in Billerica, and they were at least aware of how fucked the world of educational publishing is and tried to compensate for it. They were also upfront about their ideology (it was neo-hippie peacenik), so you can find companies that match what you want (I hope you'd expose your children to various points of view, but hey: they're your kids). If you send your children to public (or private) schools, be involved. I know it's hard, but it's important to know what your kids are being spoon-fed at school. One of the things I've learned in my 34 years on this planet (or at least the last decade or so) is that much of what I learned in school was horseshit, and part of the fault lies with the texts the kids are forced to use. Know what your children are reading and let 'em know what you think of it. And if they disagree, don't shout 'em down. Ask 'em for a reasoned argument why. They might know more than you do.
- Johnny Cochrane died.
- Jerry Falwell is in critical condition.
- Fancy plans (and pants to match) at work.
- Revolting, but thankfully minor, medical issues.
- General aging crap
UPDATE: The link above no longer works, so has been removed.
The adoption system under which our educational system purchases textbooks is a national disgrace. As the article points out, the largest state adopters wield a disproportionate amount of influence over textbook content. This means Texas gets to determine the content for health textbooks all over the country. This is Not Good, at least from the point of view of, "Uh, what do I do if I failed at the whole abstinance thing?" After all, the educational system should be able to come up with a little better answer than, "Well, you burn in Hell like the evil fornicating whore you are, Tina dear." The ideal of chastity as espoused in Christianity is all well and good, but teenagers fuck, whether we like to admit it or not. Giving them a little preparation (and I'm not asking for fisting manuals, a la the New York Post article of several years ago, just some common sense dos and don'ts), instead of egregious dumbassery will save or improve the lives of many, many young people.
Lest you think this article is all Lefty alarmism, please note that I worked for Prentice Hall for much of 2001, and I have experienced this. I worked on an Econ textbook that was being updated for, you guessed it, Texas adoption. There was a chapter on the role of unions in economic development. It was originally written from the point of view of a former Massachusetts educator. Ever see the Star Wars episode of The Muppet Show? It went over about as well as Angus McGonnagal the Argyle Gargoyle who Gargles Gershwin. I can understand that, though. Massachusetts' views do not alwasy mirror the mainstream. The author then rewrote the chapter to better represent both sides of the union issue. PH took it back to the adoption committee and said, "That's better, right?" The representative of the commmitee said-and this is a direct quote-"I would not allow my child to attend a school in which this book was used." Texas was not satisfied until the chapter on unions was reduced to, "And for a while there were labor unions, but they were an evil communist plot and went away." Now, Prentice Hall swore the National editions wouldn't read that way. But you know what? Making textbooks is 'spensive. Even replacing a few pages can run to a lot of dough during the paging process. If deadlines were tight, the National books would have gone out with the Texas text.
That's not the only problem though. One of the other problems, also outlined in the article, is the timing of new editions. If a major adopter decides to shift their date, or a dumbass corporation gets caught with its pants down and a competitor primed to seize major market share, the publisher has to shift the timing of their new edition. This can result (and has resulted) in meeting a California adoption date by compressing the two-year production schedule for a new Literature program-to pick an example not totally at random-to an unhappy seven months (the seven months I was at PH, to be precise). The end result? Shitty books. Shitty books your kids are learning from because a major publisher can't afford to take the time to do it right, because if they do, they're shut out of a major market for five years at the least. And the shitty books that California buys are the shitty books that get shipped to New York and Kentucky and Illinois and New Mexico, because it's way expensive to redo books in the middle of a print run, especially when the other markets are less remunerative. Think all this is helping the kids? Cos I don't.
How to deal? Well, if you homeschool, here's a simple answer: Don't use textbooks from major publishers. Ever. They're all part of the system and they all have the same pressures and blind spots. Find texts you're comfortable with from smaller companies. I spent four months working for a small textbook publisher in Billerica, and they were at least aware of how fucked the world of educational publishing is and tried to compensate for it. They were also upfront about their ideology (it was neo-hippie peacenik), so you can find companies that match what you want (I hope you'd expose your children to various points of view, but hey: they're your kids). If you send your children to public (or private) schools, be involved. I know it's hard, but it's important to know what your kids are being spoon-fed at school. One of the things I've learned in my 34 years on this planet (or at least the last decade or so) is that much of what I learned in school was horseshit, and part of the fault lies with the texts the kids are forced to use. Know what your children are reading and let 'em know what you think of it. And if they disagree, don't shout 'em down. Ask 'em for a reasoned argument why. They might know more than you do.