Quotes in this entry are from the following article:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-04-15-textbooks-congress_N.htm
While perusing through my Google Reader, I encountered an article that caught my attention. It doesn’t relate as much to classics as it does to textbooks, but I thought it was important since anthologies often determine what classics are taught. The article is titled “Multibillion dollar textbook scandal reaches Congress.” It describes how President Bush launched the Reading First program in 2002, giving $1 billion a year to schools for improvements in early elementary reading. The article describes the current results of the program:
“Five years later, early evidence suggests that it may be helping. But investigators say a handful of advisers have railroaded schools into buying textbooks and other materials that they and associates developed.”
The article continues on describing how the problem is that they are using legislation for financial benefit. It’s main concern is that it is illegal to use such a program in such a way and the lawlessness must be stopped. My first concern upon reading this news had nothing to do with the finances or the law of it. If this select group of textbook producers is given so much exclusive business, they are also being given an equal amount of control over the reading education of children. Whatever this company decides is best to teach is what will be taught in the classrooms that benefit form the Reading First program. What right does this company have to decide this? The article concentrates so much on the lawlessness when it should also address the problem it presents for education. Programs like this must have fewer limitations so that teachers are freer to decide what they teach. The money should go toward teaching reading in the way that each region believes to be the best, not toward teaching in the way that the textbook company decides they want to make them teach.
Chris,
I argee with you, it seems like the article is lacking the educator viewpoint. For some reason when I was reading your post, it was reminded of my own blog on standardized testing. President Bush seems to think that the best way to improve education is to standardize EVERYTHING! Textbooks, curricula, tests… I wish Mr. Bush could come to my educational psychology class and learn about a guy named Gardner, who has a theory that most educators buy into, called MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES! Of course, I’m doing a bit of “Bush Bashing” right now, but I just find it hard to believe that he and his administration honestly believe that all students learn the same! Ughh, it really bothers me.
To continue on with your point, I agree that it seems like this publishing company has more say in students’ education than we do as educators. Something isn’t right with that picture. President Bush isn’t an educator major, neither are the publishers of this anthology…yet we are, and we will probably get very little say in what works of literature get anthologized.
Hopefully sometime during our teaching careers all this will change. Either us teachers will bond together across the nation in a protest so large that something radically changes–OR–one of our fellow education students will just have to run for president of the US
These are equally difficult tasks…
[...] Comment #5 to Chris’ “The Business of Education and Corruption” [...]
I agree that we must change the current way of things, but how can we start when everything we do in the public schools revolves around money? The future of education is in what we are doing right know, internet based learning. Soon textbooks might be obsolete.