It would be nice if all we had to do was give a child a textbook to ensure a proper education. I could see the task of our public school system as an easy one - first day of kindergarten, each child receives the textbooks needed for a K-12 education and he/she goes home, never to be seen again in the public school system until graduation, and the occasional proficiency test.
No need for buildings, school playground equipment, buses, hot lunch programs, not even the dreaded "e" word (employees). Oh, if only we could rely on those intellectuals in the textbook industry to do the job that all the educators attempt to do each and every day. But that's not reality.
As a person who has actually been in the classroom, put together teaching materials for lessons, and read and studied the standards associated with curriculum, I know that many textbooks fall far short of providing the needed materials to educate our youth and prepare them for the real world. I find myself more and more relying on textbooks only as a reference for the material I actually present to the class.
Many teachers rely heavily on taking bits and pieces from primary historical sources, as well as using newly researched methods for teaching all types of subjects. Many times in the classroom, it is not how much material you can present but, rather, how you present the material you teach.
I, for one, like having teaching standards available so that I can research interesting and thought provoking materials to the students other than the rather dry and boring textbook. Besides, not all textbooks conform to newly compiled standards.
There is a lot of research going on in the educational community regarding how best to teach kids so that they take from the classroom what they are required to know. Gardener's multiple intelligence research has become an integral part of a new teacher's repertoire of teaching methods.
Gardener set forth a series of explanations for how people learn. We all know that not all of us learn in the same way. For instance, I have trouble reading a book and gaining knowledge of the subject matter solely from reading the material. I am what you call a bodily-kinesthetic/auditory learner. I need to hear the information and manipulate that information physically. If I had to rely on a textbook, I would be a failure at learning.
I take into account these intelligences when I present materials to my class, and with the advent of the Internet, I can access materials put together by other colleagues and professionals who have gained tremendous insight into what it takes to help a child learn.
Also, the textbook industry is an enigma in itself. I still can't figure out why they cost so much, especially college textbooks! And why do publishers change a few words here and there in a textbook and suddenly it becomes outdated and needs to be published gain at a huge cost? College texts are notorious for this. Sometimes it's a matter of just renumbering the chapters, and the universities require that you buy a new one at $80-$150 a pop.
Instead of more textbooks, I would like to see kids come to school awake. More serious is the attempt to teach kids who can't keep their eyes open because they worked until midnight the night before, or their parents have no say in keeping them at home and under supervision. I would challenge anyone in the community to go into a class that begins at 7:30 a.m. and see students ready, willing and able to absorb the material being presented to them, let alone being faced with the dreaded textbook.
More important to student success is classroom environment. A teacher who provides a classroom atmosphere conducive to learning, one that is safe, clean, well-lighted with a comfortable temperature and an adequate space for each student, has half the battle won.
Everyone knows this from their own personal work environments; the places they go to socialize, their churches, synagogues, hospitals, nursing homes and retirement facilities all try to provide environments where their customers will thrive and want to come back to.
We want our children to want to go to school. If this means we need to refurbish and replace some of our antiquated facility systems, then we need to do this as caretakers of the investment in our public school system.
It's not enough to give a kid a book and expect him to learn. We must provide safe and welcoming facilities as places for our kids to go, where teachers can teach in environments that facilitate learning. As Martin Haberman put it, "Schools should be well-built and kept up better than banks because there's more wealth in them."
Jean Kvam is president of the Carson City School Board.