Limiting References to Islam in Texas Schoolbooks

[Anguirus]

Isn't that a hoot? "Devotes more lines to Islam than Christianity". If that doesn't sound paranoid and petty, I don't know what would.

It's paranoid and petty all right, but it's also demonstrably wrong. I'm sure there's NEVER been a US printed textbook that talks about Islam more than Christianity, by any metric.

[General Zod]

Isn't that a hoot? "Devotes more lines to Islam than Christianity". If that doesn't sound paranoid and petty, I don't know what would.

It's paranoid and petty all right, but it's also demonstrably wrong. I'm sure there's NEVER been a US printed textbook that talks about Islam more than Christianity, by any metric.

It's possible they had more lines covering specifically what Islam believed in considering the vast majority of Americans are already exposed to Christianity. Not that it matters much since the book they cited was already out of print.

[TithonusSyndrome]

So what other options do US states have in taking the lead away from Texas in making changes to textbooks? Are there not textbook companies that cater to NY or CA? Shit, are there European texts they could be looking into?

[RedImperator]

Hey look, a thread about education and publishing.

There's a couple factors at work, here. First, it costs a lot of money to print a textbook. You're talking full color; heavy, glossy paper; heavy-duty hardback binding. Partly that's because the books have to be tough to survive handling by students, and partly it's because school administrators are no less likely to be swayed by appearances than anyone else, so the books have to look good, too. I have no idea what the exact price per unit is, but it's a lot more than a hardback novel. So when you have a book that's very expensive per unit, the publishers want to maximize economy of scale; that means printing the fewest possible editions.

Second is the economics of textbook selling. Textbooks are published "on spec"--that is, you write it, publish it, and try to sell it on the open market, district by district. So you write it to the standards that's going to make the most sales, and then you compete with the other textbook companies to move units. So if you don't write the book to Texas's standards, you've just cut yourself out of a huge slice of the market.

There are new technologies that could change the economics of all this--print-on-demand and e-books, but POD has a much higher per-unit cost for large print runs, and ebooks require expensive readers and publishers are skittish about them (though copyright violation doesn't scare them that much when dealing with institutional buyers like school districts, because institutions are easy targets for infringement lawsuits).

[Zaune]

There are new technologies that could change the economics of all this--print-on-demand and e-books, but POD has a much higher per-unit cost for large print runs, and ebooks require expensive readers and publishers are skittish about them (though copyright violation doesn't scare them that much when dealing with institutional buyers like school districts, because institutions are easy targets for infringement lawsuits).

Nothing stopping them from printing off an eBook on an office printer and putting it in a ring binder. Hell, that would solve both problems at a stroke and make it easier to write notes in the margin and highlight bits and so on, which is the main advantage of paper books.

[General Zod]

There are new technologies that could change the economics of all this--print-on-demand and e-books, but POD has a much higher per-unit cost for large print runs, and ebooks require expensive readers and publishers are skittish about them (though copyright violation doesn't scare them that much when dealing with institutional buyers like school districts, because institutions are easy targets for infringement lawsuits).

Nothing stopping them from printing off an eBook on an office printer and putting it in a ring binder. Hell, that would solve both problems at a stroke and make it easier to write notes in the margin and highlight bits and so on, which is the main advantage of paper books.

I'm pretty sure copyright laws and the cost of ink would keep most schools from going very far with that tactic.

[Formless]

Not to mention what Red said: these books have to be handled by students. Most of the one's I've bought used or had issued from a school were beat up enough as is, and they were made of far stronger materials than copy paper and a three ring binder!

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Not to mention what Red said: these books have to be handled by students. Most of the one's I've bought used or had issued from a school were beat up enough as is, and they were made of far stronger materials than copy paper and a three ring binder!

Since he says something about making notes in the margins, I'm assuming he's thinking that they'll just buy new 3-ring binders and print up new books each term. Which seems to be a truly mind-boggling waste of paper.

[Zaune]

Since he says something about making notes in the margins, I'm assuming he's thinking that they'll just buy new 3-ring binders and print up new books each term. Which seems to be a truly mind-boggling waste of paper.

Compared to just supplying each student with a laptop? Maybe, though I think the ability to highlight and annotate is important enough to justify it. (Disclaimer: This might well have become a bit less fiddly to do with a PC since I was a student.) Compared to a set of textbooks that have a shelf life of maybe five years before wear and tear and/or the onwards march of human knowledge relegates them to the recycling bin? Not so much.

[Beowulf]

Not to mention what Red said: these books have to be handled by students. Most of the one's I've bought used or had issued from a school were beat up enough as is, and they were made of far stronger materials than copy paper and a three ring binder!

Since he says something about making notes in the margins, I'm assuming he's thinking that they'll just buy new 3-ring binders and print up new books each term. Which seems to be a truly mind-boggling waste of paper.

Not to mention, not an advance at all over a POD setup. Which is really what he's advocating, but a poor man's substitute (that's more expensive once you get over the initial outlay of the POD machine).