dumbing down

Paula Cohen reviews Diane Ravitch's The Language Police, noting its balanced portrayal of both conservative and liberal moralistic bowdlerism of today's textbooks. It's a subject that teachers coming out of today's ed programs are fairly familiar with; and many of them share the distaste for textbooks that I do. Not one of my English classes uses a textbook at the center; all rely primarily on books, short stories, essays, and articles, often of the students' choosing.

Only one paragraph struck me as off-kilter:

Perhaps the best alternative to bad textbooks is no textbooks. The Language Police has an appendix containing a list of primary readings for grades three to ten. This is a good idea but an impractical one. Using primary materials, especially in the early grades, poses logistical and pedagogical problems that most American schools are not prepared to handle. Thus, textbooks are likely to remain with us. One can only hope that Diane Ravitch's book will help bring about a revision of the sanitized texts that are currently breaking our children's backs and dulling their minds.

"This is a good idea but an impractical one." Why? Because of "logistical and pedagogical problems American schools are not prepared to handle." What are these problems? Because of their bulk and their snazzy color formatting, textbooks are outrageously expensive; trade paperbacks can be bought and turned over every few years for about the same price. If schools aren't prepared for it, they should prepare for it, not just complain that it's too difficult.

And what might the pedagogical problems be--that teachers would have to create meaningful lesson plans, instead of using worksheets and handouts pre-formed by the textbook company? That's just sloppy, irresponsible teaching. Students might not be at the same reading level? Same problem with textbooks. What about the vast library of knowledge called The Internet? Sure, it's not uniformly valuable, but teachers and librarians are supposed to be professionals.

If American schools aren't prepared to do away with textbooks, it's because they're not really trying.