Textbooks Cost a Lot. They Shouldn’t. (4 Letters)
To the Editor:
美國大專教科書產業最發達 經常走火入魔
There is a very simple reason textbooks are too expensive (“Course Requirement: Extortion,” by Michael Granof, Op-Ed, Aug. 12): they have too many pages. In a typical college course, it’s usual not to use even half the text.
Publishers are making texts longer, more colorful and crammed with information, but it serves no purpose in the classroom. As a college professor of five years, I have learned that class time should not be about trying to use as much of a text as possible just so students will not feel that they’ve wasted their money.
In a true student-centered classroom, texts are used sparingly. Recently I’ve begun using much shorter texts that are so inexpensive that I can combine two. I feel liberated without a cumbersome tome, and students are thrilled at not having to spend a fortune and lug around a 900-page text. Publishers take note: less is more.
Cindy Wishengrad
New York, Aug. 12, 2007
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To the Editor:
Michael Granof suggests a number of intelligent ways to cut the prohibitive cost of required college textbooks. I would like to suggest another — that professors cease teaching an entire course directly from a single textbook altogether.
In the four years I spent studying physical natural sciences at the University of Cambridge, I was never once required to buy a textbook, for the simple reason that my professors devised their own courses and wrote their own, unique sets of notes to accompany each course. A list of interesting reference texts was available in the library for any student who wanted to go the extra mile.
Maybe it is time that the tenure system placed less emphasis on research, and more on teaching, as a way to get tenure?
Beth Guiton
Philadelphia, Aug. 12, 2007
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To the Editor:
Michael Granof’s suggestion that educational publishers and universities engage in the content-licensing of textbooks (like software) deserves further study. McGraw-Hill Education has begun to pursue this approach through a number of successful content-licensing arrangements with colleges and universities.
Our mission is to produce world-class intellectual content and deliver it in the form best suited to our customers’ needs.
In today’s digital environment, printed textbooks are one of several options available to publishers for delivering educational content. We are continuously working with colleges and universities to create the most efficient and effective learning tools that enhance teaching, learning and student achievement.
Digital delivery holds great promise for enhancing learning, lowering costs and making a system like Professor Granof’s a viable option.
Edward H. Stanford
President
McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Burr Ridge, Ill., Aug. 15, 2007
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To the Editor:
An otherwise excellent article missed a trick — why are students still asked to purchase printed math and science textbooks? As a middle school math and science teacher, I’m not constrained by my school to teach from textbooks. I can use a wide variety of tools to reach my students on multiple levels.
If college students had access to textbooks online, the cost of printing and distribution would go away. Multimedia academic training with built-in discussions and study guides would enhance learning. Such services could be subscription based, have built-in expiration dates and come as a bundled service with tuition. With near-zero marginal costs for adding students, publishers could still make a profit.
You could even print out a section to read in the bathtub ... which is much easier and less financially risky than balancing a $180 tome on the edge of your bathtub.
Doug Garfinkel
San Francisco, Aug. 13, 2007
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