Size matters in California
Lawmakers voted Thursday to ban school districts from purchasing textbooks longer than 200 pages.
The bill, believed to be the first of its kind nationwide, was hailed by supporters as a way to revolutionize education. [Source]
That is is the first of its kind is no surprise since that happens a lot in California. Unfortunately like most bad trends initiated there they are sure to be coming to a state near you. I wonder what is next? Perhaps that all text be encapsulated in balloons like in comic books. But you know this plan will fall just as soon as one politically correct piece of information is snipped to fit When a Native Americans explanation of changing seasons is cut from a science book ore when one of myriad instances of "evil European settlers" is removed.
If I was living in California I would be tempted to request that they make all spending bills less than 200 pages also, but I know that if that happened they would be printed in a font size that would make microfiche look large by comparison.
The 200 page rule though has been a silent rule for many Catholic religious educators also. I have heard and read many times of those that complain that the Catechism is 800 pages and thus should be dismissed as being too big. Which I guess kind of leaves out the Bible also.
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How stupid. This kind of crap going on is exactly why I decided to homeschool 11 years ago. Best decision I ever made.
This just means textbooks will be divided into parts...good for Book companies, bad for school budgets.
It's also not the first time you've used an apostrophe when incorrectly.
It's also not the first time that I've mangled a comment.
The problem is that California is a huge textbook market. If a publisher can't sell books in California and Texas, he's going under.
So, effectively, California and Texas set the rules for the rest of the country.
Hey, do you want to save a bundle and really get teachers and their unions riled up? Have the state stop purchasing "teachers' editions." Ha! It would be like shutting off the teleprompter on a news anchor. (Now I'm going to have teachers AND news anchors after me! But I'm more worried about the teachers' unions.)
I wasn't able to access the source to find out, but what is the philosopy behind reducing the size of the textbooks? Too heavy too carry? Killing too many trees? Put the text on CDs. Or is it, as I suspect from your responses, that they believe it's just too much data for children to absorb? If this is the case, it is the same philosophy behind doing away with the Baltimore Catechist years ago. I believe that was a huge disservice to me and others of my generation and I've been trying to reclaim what was not taught to me ever since.
Let me guess, The book is shortened to 200 pages but the kids will have to read it with a magnifying lens? or do they learn everything like Sesame Street. You know, little bits of info here and there, but never the whole picture. Well at least all those ADD kids will be kept busy.
Jeff, you've got trolls again.
I think it's a great idea...ever see the parade of pack horses lugging their huge (and heavy) book bags to and from school every day...they're causing lasting damage to their young (and still growing) backs. My daughter's doctor attributes much pain to those back packs!