In signing up my daughter for college classes today ...Textbooks

[dancer67]

My daughter is in public high school. She is graduating this year and we signed her up for CC college today for the fall. When going to the college bookstore, I noiced that all the textbooks used were by either Pearson Education or Prentice Hall(or some other big public school textbook publisher).

 

Now for someone like my daughter, who has always used public school texts, this format will not bother her since she is so used to the setup.

 

But what about us homeschoolers who are coming from a curriculum that is very "non public school textbooks". Such as HOD, or Sonlight?

 

Would it be better to use textbooks such as the ones colleges use so that our children are prepared better?

 

If we send our children to public colleges and universities that use these textbooks, we must feel that they are getting a good education, correct?

 

So how come most homeschoolers do not use these publishers?

 

I hope I am making sense:confused:

[Tap]

Hmmm. Well I think that by high school most kids have ran across at least one book that is set up like a text book.

 

Basically they need to be able to understand how to use a glossary, index, dictionary sections. To understand why some words are bolded and why there are sometimes italicized words. To use the features of books that have vocab words defined in the margins, or ancillary information provided in boxes. How to utilize the review sections and to use chapter summaries.

 

I don't think many kids will get all the way through home school without seeing these methods used.

 

If not, then I guess they will learn....just like any kid learns the first time they run into a text book whether it was 1st grade or 12th grade.

 

 

ETA (sorry I had to leave for a second).

 

I don't think it matters if kids have learned from these textbook publishers or not. After one or two classes any disadvantage will likely be gone. I can't think of a single math program that doesn't use some kind of text book that would get a child into College Algebra for instance. Books like Life of Fred can get them part way, but not all they way there, at some point I would guess a text book would be needed.

 

For the rare learner that is not capable of adapting to learning from a text book format, I doubt that they would pick traditional college as thier method of learning. If they do need it, there are audio versions of most books or classes that use minimal books, that they would need to inevitably seek out.

Edited April 20, 2011 by Tap, tap, tap

[Mergath]

Part of it is that most hsers want their kids to grow up loving learning, so they try to make learning more fun. Textbooks are not fun. Textbooks give you the facts, and only the facts. Learning from a textbook requires a high degree of focus and motivation.

 

When it comes to younger children, teaching through a means other than textbooks makes sense. Kids have short attention spans, and will be much more engaged, and learn much more, from projects, fun reading, etc.

 

With older kids who plan to attend a college of some sort, though, I think it makes sense to integrate more standard textbooks into the curriculum so they can learn how to extract and retain needed information from them. Yes, they're often boring and dry (though I've read some that were very good, as well) but they pack a heck of a lot more information than a lapbook or a stack of semi-related novels, and that's a necessity in most college courses.

 

When my dd hits high school, if she still wants to hs (I plan to let her choose starting in ninth grade) we will definitely use standard high school textbooks from the major publishers along with our other resources. I think that, when you're getting into advanced subject matter, they're far superior to what I've seen among specifically hsing texts.

[EKS]

There is a huge difference between college level texts and the ones intended for use in public high schools. I think the primary reason for this difference is that there is way too much politics involved in creating a high school text and so it tends to turn the entire thing into drivel.

 

So I can see why a person might try to avoid high school textbooks but not mind the college level ones from the same publisher.

[justasque]

So how come most homeschoolers do not use these publishers?

 

Textbooks written for large classes are not always ideal for a small class or a single student. In addition, the teacher's materials for many texts are incredibly expensive, well out of range for most of us. Plus they often include multiple items, making the price even higher. They are not packaged with the homeschool family in mind.

 

That said, I do use Prentice Hall books (science), McDougal Littell books (math), and so on; by using the most-recent-but-one edition I can usually find the texts and TE's at reasonable prices.

 

If you homeschool through high school, you are likely to encounter more textbook-y materials without any particular effort.

 

Also, you saw the texts in the bookstore; professors also use books on hold at the library, copies of articles, films shown in class, and so on as appropriate to the particular subject, but you won't see these kinds of things in the bookstore, so you're getting a somewhat biased picture, if you see what I mean.

[Ellie]

But what about us homeschoolers who are coming from a curriculum that is very "non public school textbooks". Such as HOD, or Sonlight?

What about us?

 

Would it be better to use textbooks such as the ones colleges use so that our children are prepared better?

No.

 

If we send our children to public colleges and universities that use these textbooks, we must feel that they are getting a good education, correct?

Yes, or at least we think there are no other options so we're stuck with it.

 

So how come most homeschoolers do not use these publishers?

Because we know that when dc are younger, there are more interesting ways of learning things. Because we can cover more by using the things we do. Because we know that many textbook publishers have a slanted/twisted POV. Because we know that there are textbook errors.

 

Such is life.

[Daisy]

My daughter is in public high school. She is graduating this year and we signed her up for CC college today for the fall. When going to the college bookstore, I noiced that all the textbooks used were by either Pearson Education or Prentice Hall(or some other big public school textbook publisher).

 

Now for someone like my daughter, who has always used public school texts, this format will not bother her since she is so used to the setup.

 

But what about us homeschoolers who are coming from a curriculum that is very "non public school textbooks". Such as HOD, or Sonlight?

 

Would it be better to use textbooks such as the ones colleges use so that our children are prepared better?

 

If we send our children to public colleges and universities that use these textbooks, we must feel that they are getting a good education, correct?

 

So how come most homeschoolers do not use these publishers?

 

I hope I am making sense:confused:

 

Well, no, I don't necessarily think that. LOL. I teach using whole books because I feel that offers them the best education. They'll likely attend college so they can get a piece of paper.

 

I never used a textbook until high school and then it was mostly only for math and science. I didn't have a huge problem with the transition. Most of my college courses didn't require textbooks. We used real books. The only classes that really called for textbooks were the general requirement courses which I tested out of, and maybe one or two psych courses. I've never taken a course that required the publishers you mentioned. The difference in attending a private university, maybe?

 

I do agree that teaching student to read densely-packed tedious college texts is a temporarily important skill, but I can't imagine patterning my entire home school education after that in order to teach it.

[StephanieZ]

FWIW, many elite colleges use very few if any text books.

 

Many classes at elite colleges use a wide range of readings, sources, and lecture. . . and avoid texts.

 

So, an argument could be made that to prepare a student for studying at Yale or Olin or Harvard, they should not be using texts.

 

Personally, I expect kids can get a good education from a range of sources, and they should be competent in learning from a variety of sources by the time they go to college -- texts, original sources, lectures, etc.

[Cedarmom]

In college, they have more choices. They can select their own class. Which means they can look at the material and resources and find the one they think is most beneficial/interesting. So far my son has had a variety of text books and "real" books. Currently he is reading "International Studies and Zombies" as his textbook for political science:001_smile: Math and Physcis were the normal textbook types.

[AuntieM]

There is a huge difference between college level texts and the ones intended for use in public high schools. I think the primary reason for this difference is that there is way too much politics involved in creating a high school text and so it tends to turn the entire thing into drivel.

 

So I can see why a person might try to avoid high school textbooks but not mind the college level ones from the same publisher.

 

There is no lack of politics in college level textbook publishing. :glare:

 

My daughter is in public high school. She is graduating this year and we signed her up for CC college today for the fall. When going to the college bookstore, I noiced that all the textbooks used were by either Pearson Education or Prentice Hall(or some other big public school textbook publisher)...

 

Now for someone like my daughter, who has always used public school texts, this format will not bother her since she is so used to the setup.

 

But what about us homeschoolers who are coming from a curriculum that is very "non public school textbooks". Such as HOD, or Sonlight?

 

Would it be better to use textbooks such as the ones colleges use so that our children are prepared better?

 

If we send our children to public colleges and universities that use these textbooks, we must feel that they are getting a good education, correct?

 

So how come most homeschoolers do not use these publishers?

 

I hope I am making sense:confused:

 

The plus to the Pearson texts is that there are online interactive study aids (virtual labs, study materials, practice tests) created to supplement the material for many courses of study. So it's not just the printed texts.

 

If you have raised your student to be a persevering reader, as I imagine would be the result of a curriculum such as Sonlight (or TWTM, of course), I think you've done your best to enable her to digest a college level text. There's a TON more info, and the vocabulary is elevated, but it's still mainly just a lot of reading...

 

And I must confess, I opened this thread fully expecting it to be a rant about the COST of college textbooks rather than the format! Oy, vey! :svengo:

[Momling]

Kids will adapt. And actually, I had few (if any) traditional textbooks for either undergrad or grad school.

[KidsHappen]

I used textbooks at the high school level for science and history. I used high school Pearson/Prentice Hall for science: Exploring Life and Conceptual Physics and then I used college level chemistry and The Human Odyssey (I have no idea who the current publisher on this text is. My edition is West publishing but it has changed publishers a few times.) However, none of my kids classes in college have actually used textbooks yet, $300 worth of literature yes, textbooks no. I don't actually remember a whole lot of textbooks from my college days either, mostly math, science and into classes.

[regentrude]

Note: the only subjects I can speak about are sciences and math... and there even elite colleges DO use textbooks.

A college text is rather different from a public school k-12 text. (I use only college texts for my kids' high school sciences because they are far better than the stuff they offer for ps)

In a college class, the main point is to get information across, concise and organized. A textbook accomplishes this. It does not have to be fun and full of little motivators- it is assumed the student is interested in the subject he chooses to study. It does not have to be full of little projects - hands on experience is acquired in a lab. It needs to have explanations, and plenty of practice. It is intended to give the background material, with important points discussed by the professor in lecture (so, the best use of a college text is often to read the assigned sections before attending class)

Actually, it would be beneficial if a homeschooled or public schooled student entered college with the ability to work with a textbook: to read a dense text, to extract the important information, to take notes, to interpret graphs. At some point in high school, this would be a valuable skill to acquire.

 

Now I guess in literature and history, it is perfectly possible to design a course without textbooks. In sciences, this is done rarely.

[Hen]

I use Sonlight, but Sonlight does not cover all subjects. My highschool student used a college Algebra text (for a while) and her Science books are text books. I think most kids will have come across a text book or two by college. If not, no big deal, it is just information arranged in a certain format. Information is information.

[dancer67]

Well, I certainly can rant about the cost of those books as well. $150.00 for a BOOK? I got the same one(Lials) for $5.00 on Amazon!

 

I guess I was a little overwhelmed looking at the college texts. And a little nervous as well. We do not use public school textbooks here in our homeschool. At all. When we get to high school, I don't know. I think I was more nervous in thinking that if the colleges are using Pearson(as some of the public schools do as well) does this mean they are getting a better education then what I am giving them here at home? Using mainly, curriculum written by homeschoolers, or non-traditional authors/publishers.

 

But the answers I got here made complete sense. :001_smile:

[happypamama]

I suppose it depends on the college class/track too. I was a history major in college. We had very few textbooks; most of my classes had a list of ten or so books, often Penguin paperbacks, that we read instead. Very much a living books approach. Instead of reading a textbook entry about Salic law, we read the Salic law itself and examined what it told us about life in those times.

 

I'm sure students will adapt to whatever they need, as well. I expect that my children will use some sort of textbook for high school, particularly math and/or science, and they may well take some college classes during high school. So they'll probably be used to using textbooks, but I think they'll figure it all out.

[dcjlkplus3]

Would a textbook really be much different from say the The Usborne Science Encyclopedia or Kingfisher history Encyclopedia that are spines for logic or rhetoric level history or science? Obviously at college level rather than middle or high school level, but it seems like the same general idea.

[MeaganS]

FWIW, many elite colleges use very few if any text books.

 

Many classes at elite colleges use a wide range of readings, sources, and lecture. . . and avoid texts.

 

So, an argument could be made that to prepare a student for studying at Yale or Olin or Harvard, they should not be using texts.

 

Personally, I expect kids can get a good education from a range of sources, and they should be competent in learning from a variety of sources by the time they go to college -- texts, original sources, lectures, etc.

 

:iagree:

 

I just graduated with my Bachelor's last year, and I think I can remember using a textbook in Calculus, and maybe one other class. Mostly they were all living books, though. So I think this is mostly a non-issue. And in fact, I think it goes the other way around. I had difficulty using real books instead of textbooks. With textbooks I had learned the trick to finding the most important information easily, but I had no practice with learning from real books.

[DianeW88]

I went to a private university and did not use textbooks for over 95% of my classes.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

I suppose it depends on the college class/track too. I was a history major in college. We had very few textbooks; most of my classes had a list of ten or so books, often Penguin paperbacks, that we read instead. Very much a living books approach. Instead of reading a textbook entry about Salic law, we read the Salic law itself and examined what it told us about life in those times.

 

:iagree: The only traditional textbooks I use right now are for my languages, math and science. And other than math, the textbooks are really used to supplement lectures/labs. Actually that is one of the complaints of many college students... we pay so much for the textbooks that rarely get used! :tongue_smilie: