Indiana Board of Education bored by history textbooks
The state Board of Education says it recently discovered what students yawning through social studies class may already know -- their textbooks are boring.
Members of the board, which routinely approves books for schools statewide, said the publications were so dull they recently tried to reject the list of social studies texts.
They later changed their minds after state schools chief Suellen Reed urged the group to approve the books so that schools could buy them at a discounted rate.
Reed acknowledged that many of the books don't read well, however, and the board voted to send letters to schools warning that the books may be too monotonous for kids.
"I found them to not do very much other than be a travelogue through history," said board member David Shane. "They were dry as dust to me."
Shane said the books didn't give students a real sense of the controversies of the past. They did not offer a way to determine the importance of World War II in history, he said, or provide enough details for students to determine that slavery was bad. ...
A spokeswoman for McGraw-Hill said the company has worked hard to make books interesting.
"Our programs, specifically designed to state standards, include many components that increase students' interactivity with our content including stories, class projects and Web sites that contain games, animations and other digital tools," spokeswoman Mary Skafidas said.
Read entire article at AP
Members of the board, which routinely approves books for schools statewide, said the publications were so dull they recently tried to reject the list of social studies texts.
They later changed their minds after state schools chief Suellen Reed urged the group to approve the books so that schools could buy them at a discounted rate.
Reed acknowledged that many of the books don't read well, however, and the board voted to send letters to schools warning that the books may be too monotonous for kids.
"I found them to not do very much other than be a travelogue through history," said board member David Shane. "They were dry as dust to me."
Shane said the books didn't give students a real sense of the controversies of the past. They did not offer a way to determine the importance of World War II in history, he said, or provide enough details for students to determine that slavery was bad. ...
A spokeswoman for McGraw-Hill said the company has worked hard to make books interesting.
"Our programs, specifically designed to state standards, include many components that increase students' interactivity with our content including stories, class projects and Web sites that contain games, animations and other digital tools," spokeswoman Mary Skafidas said.