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At first, I thought this was a great idea. Then I realized that not everyone has easy access to computers. Poorer kids might be left behind. One can print e-boo
by TriinT 17y ago
At first, I thought this was a great idea. Then I realized that not everyone has easy access to computers. Poorer kids might be left behind. One can print e-books, but that sometimes ends up costing quite a bit, too.
This might sound crazy, but didn't the Soviets solve this problem decades ago? The commies believed that education should be for all, and they had amazing math and physics books which were also really cheap!! And this were GREAT books. Stuff written by Landau & Lifschitz, Arnol'd, Gelfand, etc. These books were translated to Spanish so that the Cubans and other Latin-Americans could read them. They were translated to Portuguese so people in Brazil had access to good books at affordable prices. Why is it that only in the U.S. can't people have access to good books at affordable prices? Is the textbook cartel's lobbying that powerful???
- philwelch 17y agoAnd each book had three chapters about Marxist-Leninist theory at the beginning!
- TriinT 17y agoNot the ones I read. There are a few famous physicists these days whose interest in physics was sparked by the availability of good & cheap Soviet physics books. American books are over-designed. Too many colors and visual noise. Textbooks should go back to basics and provide condensed knowledge at affordable prices.
- sireat 17y agoActually, the amount of propaganda in Soviet hard-core science books was very small, in fact, math books didn't have any, that I can remember.
- dan_the_welder 17y agoI'm starting to think that America is by the Cartels, for the Cartels.
- lkozma 17y agoYou must be referring to the MIR series of textbooks. Demidovich's Calculus was another classic.
- dinkumthinkum 17y agoPretty much yeah. I am advocate of the so-called "Great Books" or canon curriculum. I think it is pedagogically sound and undoubtedly very cheap. The source material for many mathematics and physics work can be had for a few dollars a book. Although, I admit, it is still very debatable if Great Books is really pedagogically sound; I'm just a fan!