Why are textbooks considered bad?

[Brenda in MA]

And you're right, sigh, we really can't do it all. And sometimes when we're going a certain direction with a dc, it's because we're saying, not so much that he *can't* learn with those other things (because he might use them for other subjects) but that for this subject for this time it's not the mix he needs. But you know, seems to me that I can intelligently *balance that out* over the list and entirety of his/her subjects. (essays, text, and primary sources in history, but trade books and projects in science, etc.) I just really hadn't thought of it that way, thanks. It's definitely not that I want to short shrift any category, because I do think they all ought to be hit. But they don't have to all be done for every subject every year, mercy. Even the AP classes people laud don't do that. In general those are so skewed one direction it's not even funny. But if we skew it in a different direction, oh that's bad. ;)

 

:iagree:

I think that while planning high school for my oldest, I finally realized this too. There just aren't enough hours in the day to do a complete/thorough/deep course in every subject. There's just too much content out there and not enough time. As you've said, I think the best approach is to make sure that you are hitting the key skills each year in at least some subjects. In my mind, high school is where you need to start taking the dc's strenths, needs, and interests into account when planning, and you need to make some tough, really tough decisions on where the high schooler should spend his/her school time.

 

Brenda

[goldenecho]

What killed science for me as a little kid was the idea that everything to be discovered was already discovered (or most of it, and anything left would be very, very hard).  Because originally I was the kid mixing things up in the bathroom to see what they would do.

 

It was the fact that all the science "experiments" (really, they should have been called demonstrations, not experiments) had a right or wrong answer.  If you didn't get the result your teacher expected you did them wrong.  That sort of added to that feeling that science was just about learning a bunch of facts and not about discovery--except for a elite brilliant or lucky few.

 

Textbooks, in general, I've found dry until I got to college.  I loved some of my textbooks then.  History was the big surprize when I started reading single author history books.  I do think for History having 10 writers writing a book where they try not to offend anyone, with a whole bunch of people looking over their shoulder with different agendas...well, it makes for some boring writing.  DRY.  Bare facts...no meat. 

 

Science textbooks I never really got into though for a different reason.  VOCABULARY.  The vocab in Shakespeare I was fine with...in the textbook there were footnotes--right there at the bottom of the page.  But in my Botany book, a subject I really wanted to learn, I couldn't get through one sentence without having to head to the glossary to look up a word.  I remember one particular sentence (and not a short one) I had to look up every single word except "the" and "and."  (Yeah, and I don't remember hardly anything from that book).   And even after looking up all the words I had trouble understanding what they were trying to say.   It took me ages to wade through.   I usually have a pretty good vocabulary, but it's not a science vocabulary.  So for me, I guess it's just the technical language.  

 

 

Based on a current thread and on many past threads there appear to be folks out there who consider textbooks (particularly science textbooks) to be responsible for killing a love of science.

Can anyone explain this? I find, too, that those who feel this way are usually not science majors. There appears to be a contrast between what a science major and a liberal arts major find to be a reasonable/rigorous science education.

The idea that textbooks are evil and stifling is just so foreign to me. But I will admit that I spent many hours curled up on the sofa with my mother's nursing education textbooks when I was in 6th grade. From there, I learned to appreciate a well crafted science text. I still get a little giddy when I open one of my sons' science texts - there's just something about knowing that I'm going to learn something interesting...

Is the problem, perhaps, that the current resources available to homeschoolers, that would allow a non science mom to teach the subject, are incredibly dry and boring?