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Friday, September 14, 2007
Textbooks: Who Needs ‘Em?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Clayton County is short thousands of student textbooks this year, and, according to the article by my colleague Eric Stirgus, administrators don’t seem to have a handle on exactly what caused teachers to resort to making photocopies for pupils.
Some administrators said there were simply more students than they had expected, as well as a backlog on some new books they had ordered. But interim Superintendent Gloria Duncan also said the books weren’t ordered on time.
“We have a big mess,” she told county Board of Education members earlier this week, “and I am trying to unravel it.”
The story reminded me of a comment that a teacher once made to me about how outdated textbooks aren’t really a concern because a lot of other supplemental materials — including information downloaded from the Internet — are used in classrooms.
So I wonder: As sad as it sounds that some Clayton students haven’t gotten their textbooks, how necessary are they anyway?
