Roy Exum
There are very few scams that are so blatantly pulled off in full view by the public that can equal the textbook racket. Several years ago there came the startling news that revealed the average price of school textbooks had increased by more than 800 percent in the last 30 years. Just last year the Hamilton County Board of Education updated some math textbooks for a cool $4 million. That is totally absurd.
All you need to do is “follow the money” to understand why our state Board of Education is suddenly advocating quite an update to the history books that are used in Tennessee classrooms. Hello! It is time for some tenured college professor to give his new and updated version on things that actually happened so he and perhaps a colleague or two can pocket a bundle of filthy lucre. In short, on the field of opportunity it’s plowing time again.
In college it happens all the time. A professor of Syrian origin requires all of his English 101 classes at State U. to use a textbook authored by the dean of English at some junior college in Florida. That same dean requires his department to use a book written by a transsexual from Ohio. The transsexual professor requires his classes to use the Syrian professor’s book. How do you like them apples?
Whether they admit it or not, there is a strong belief those on all levels of education take other liberties in the textbook wrangle. There are all sorts of ‘ins – bidding, buying … they’ve even got computer books that self-destruct faster than Mission Impossible instructions. There are stories that appear with regularity of some noble educators leading a double life as common criminals. If you just read where an Atlanta hospital was fined over $500 million for steering Medicare mothers-to-be through its doors, don’t think there aren’t some teachers who do the same.
What is fun to watch – in somewhat of a macabre way – is how the teachers pitch the game. Instead of allowing us to wonder why we need a new version of history, the “smoke” instead is disguised by what should we leave out of the book and what should go in. You see, the manipulators want you to wonder which is more important: whether Nashville suffragette Anne Dudley led the nation towards the right of women to vote or is it Chattanooga native Reggie White becoming “The Minister of Defense” for the Green Bay Packers.
In truth it makes no difference to the textbook author. The professor has “cut and paste” on his computer, too, and will include “anything you want to pay for” in the book. All he really wants is to write his all-time favorite line: “For Deposit Only.”
Under state law – this as an answer to profuse lobbying by book sellers – the state’s Board of Education must review subject standards every six years. Is there anyone in education who doesn’t want the newest textbook? The critical thing to remember is not a soul in education pays for the book except when combined with all of the state’s other taxpayers.
I realize it costs relatively little to print and bind a hard-cover book with today’s technology … maybe $20? Yet there are some ‘required’ textbooks in college that cost over $250 and that’s senseless. That’s why – if I was the governor – I’d get someone with common sense to run the State’s education arm. I’d print my own books. The State of Tennessee would save millions every year.
In candor, a textbook of state history is silly. What we need instead is a course that combines state history with state civics. Today civics in Tennessee has been horribly watered down and just the opposite needs to happen – every child must learn his or her vote is their greatest contribution to our future. By studying our state’s history at the same time, it becomes practical information that will last a lifetime.
When my brothers and sister grew up, all six of us children went through the McGuffey Readers. There are six in each set and, while they were originally printed in the 1830s, do you realize that even today about 30,000 sets are still sold in the United States every year. All told, the experts claim that between 1836 and 1960 over 120 million set of McGuffey’s were sold. That’s in the same class as the Bible and Webster’s Dictionary and – believe this -- a set of McGuffey’s Readers can still teach people how to read in 2016.
What’s more, the state of Tennessee could start printing a generic textbook for our surrounding states. I believe if we could teach basic science, basic math, and basic history with basic books, our children would be better prepared than with some of the goofy stuff their teachers don’t even believe is worthy of classroom conversation.
We hear about “new math” and other such garbage when a copy of Ray’s Arithmetic series (1848-1913) can well equip any child for life. Never in the history of time itself have there been as many great books available on many more subjects than you can ever dream. But as today’s professors and misguided educators will never admit, books by Hemingway, O’Henry, and so many other masters are sorely underused. Give me any kid in high school and let me hand him a copy of Larry McMurtry’s “Lonesome Dove” and look out! He’ll teach himself to read.
When Justin Robertson, now an assistant superintendent in the Hamilton County system, was principal at J.B. Brown Middle, he was turning kids on with really great books like “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand. The glory is that by the time anyone finishes reading about Louis Zamperini, you realize the human spirit can endure anything. That’s teaching. That’s education.
Now how do you imagine we can educate our educators to snuff the textbook scam? When we do, Hamilton County won’t have to pay $4 million for math books every six years … we certainly haven’t added any additional numbers from zero to nine in quite a long time.
royexum@aol.com