This column series offers replies to what is published in the current “text books,” which are adopted by the State and school districts.
BY HAMILTON HANSON
To complete the review of Topic 1 of there was a time when the books that students used for class discussion and homework started the first and each succeeding chapter with direct information on which the students would be periodically tested. Today’s “textbooks” begin with a great amount of administrative information.
The book I am now reviewing is American Government published by Savvas Learning Company. The first page in the book begins with a half page of instructions on how to access the digital form of the book and a half page on the legalities and copyright information.
The next page contains credits for the three authors. The next page is a listing and brief biography of the four Reviewers and 15 Consultants. The following five pages are a conversation aimed toward the teachers on how the book was created and teaching instructions on its use.
Next comes eight pages of Table of Contents, then one page regarding the Reference Section at the back of the book. A list of Print Resources takes eleven pages, and Digital Resources takes seven pages.
The next 11 pages contain the “Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Civics and Government,” which pertain to this subject at this grade. The section includes 38 Social Studies, 7 Math, 6 ELA, 2 ELD and 1 HE standards for a total of 54 standards on which the students will be informed in order to graduate with a Florida diploma.
The next section of the book (FL1 – FL33) is an excellent discussion of Florida, its government, economy, people and geography. I would estimate that these pages are a combination of 50 percent pictures, maps and graphs. There are five “Assessment” sections, each taking about a half page.
I see no indication that these pages are to be incorporated into the lessons for our students. That brings me to the beginning of the actual lesson text writings for Topic 1, “Foundations of Government and Citizenship.”
While providing a discussion/review of the materials included in this book for student learning, I am also very interested in the cost to the taxpayers of the actual materials needed by a student for learning. All of the above before starting the learning by the students comprise some 60 pages. General comments are that all this material is also included in the digital version of this textbook, and each student is provided with a laptop computer.
The end of the book is filled lavishly with 170 pages of pertinent documents, with both a copy of the document and a full explanation of the relative document. Seventy-eight of the 170 pages are taken up with the Glossary and Index.
I am concerned at the quantity of this extraneous, possibly “wasted” space in this book for which the taxpayers must pay.
