My son was the accidental beneficiary of the new edition of a history text in high school: the new edition stayed in his locker at school, and he picked up for

My son was the accidental beneficiary of the new edition of a history text in high school: the new edition stayed in his locker at school, and he picked up for a few bucks the older edition, which hardly differed, to use at home. But I think that we Americans are in general too much in love with the apparatus of education: it's a hell of a lot easier to estimate the weight of a backpack than it is to evaluate what actually happens in the classroom and what the kids are learning. So it reassures us to see a seven-year-old girl carrying a backpack she could about sleep in.