Will textbooks be different?

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the Texas School Board's curriculum guidelines for textbooks to be used for the next decade. The politically conservative majority on the board has decided to emphasize certain aspects of American history and downplay others. The Judeo-Christian background of the Founding Fathers, for example, will be discussed, but not the reasons why they decided to separate religion from government in the new country. Liberals have protested that these decisions give a false idea of history and because they will be enshrined in textbooks for Texas, textbooks in other, smaller states will be affected as well. The eSchool News offers us a balanced assessment of whether or not liberals should be so worried. Perhaps the danger is not so great as feared, because many publishers now offer different versions of each textbook tailored to the curriculum requirements of many states. One question that bothers me is whether we as librarians and teachers should look forward to a country in which children learn different historical facts in each state. It is rather sad that a country cannot agree on whether to call our system of government a "constitutional republic", as Texas will, or a "democracy" as most of the rest of us do. The whole issue of textbooks, of course, is changing as more texts move online where they can be updated and changed frequently and inexpensively. But a new fear grows if each state and school district can modify the electronic textbook to suite the prejudices of the local community. It's something to think about. A side issue that has not been discussed is the increasing importance of libraries, which continue to offer a variety of points of view. Children and parents who want a broader view than that offered by the standard textbooks should be able to find many points of view in the library. New books, new websites, and new media offer far more information than is available in textbooks and far more individual voices. We must continue to work for continuing support for school and public libraries so we can raise children who are aware of different individuals and different visions which have contributed to the growth of our country.

Changeable textbooks

According to the N.Y. Times, Macmillan Publishing company is releasing software that will allow academic authors to change their textbooks after publication. Authors will be able to revise, update, and rearrange chapters to suit the needs of individual courses or new developments. They will also be allowed to insert new material from their other works or from other authors (presumably with the author's permission). This is an exciting new development in publishing form college texts and it's quite possible the trend will be extended to high school textbooks too. Of course there are dangers--new errors could slip into the book as the author makes changes without editorial oversight. I wonder whether there will be any hacking of textbooks to insert material contrary to the wishes of the author. The issue of security is always important for online texts. Overal, however, the possibilities for better, less expensive and more up-to-date textbooks look good. Let's hope this trend continues.