Picking the Right Textbooks and Reading Materials: A Ton of Responsibility (D&Z 3+4)

Textbooks: too heavy, too long, too dense, too expensive, too heavily relied upon. These are only some of the criticisms that you’re bound to hear when discussing textbooks. And you don’t have to be an educator or a student to know that they are consistent and serious issues. What’s worse is that they are all completely valid claims. It seems that at younger and younger ages, students are being forced to purchase expensive and sometimes comically oversized textbooks to ensure that they will learn what they need to in order to pass that all-important end of year standardized test. And therein lies the problem: textbooks DO NOT ensure that students will learn. The only thing that ensures learning takes place in a meaningful and consistent manner is the teacher. How then, do teachers facilitate real learning without that paragon of academic learning, the textbook?  

The first and most important step, but perhaps also the most difficult is to reduce the reliance on textbooks that has become so commonplace in schools across the country. The fact is that textbooks are too long, not comprehensive enough, and written too formally for students to really get anything out of them. We expect students to read five or six textbooks practically cover to cover over the course of a year and are surprised when they don’t retain the information. Sure, textbooks can be useful for drilling dates, definitions, names, places, formulas, and other facts into students’ heads, but this is not what real learning looks like. Real learning entails the recognition, understanding, and analysis of larger and more impactful concepts. When students are able to understand and discuss things that affect everyday life, then real learning has taken place. Textbooks alone cannot teach these things, and so educators must learn to greatly reduce their dependence on them and start to incorporate reading materials from other disciplines, genres, and styles into their teaching.

            

Even though I do not yet have my own classroom, I am confident in saying that my biggest concern as an educator will be encouraging critical and independent thought among my students. I think this is something that I’ve always placed a premium on, so it worries me when teachers (especially history teachers) rely mostly or solely on a textbook to do a majority of the teaching. For the most part, textbooks cannot and will not encourage students to think for themselves. They will present information as hard and indisputable fact that should not be questioned. Granted, for subjects such as math and science which are inherently fact based, this is acceptable, or at least more so than in some other subjects. But even then, there needs to be some room allowed for students to question what they are learning without the fear of reproach or ridicule. Curiosity and healthy skepticism are the foundation for conscious, critically, and independently thinking adults. Students need to know that there are multiple angles from which all things can and should be considered. I think my favorite passage from these two chapters is the following: “Whether it is intentional or not, it is unacceptable for schools in a democracy to teach young people that only one view is sufficient…” (Daniels and Zemelman, 56). This accurately captures the very essence of why I want to become a teacher. And the way that young people are taught that only one view is sufficient is by having them read textbooks page by page and having them memorize and recite facts back to you. This is a wholly unacceptable way of teaching, and something I resolve never to do in my career as an educator.