Tribulations

Despite the hue and cry justly raised against ideology and silliness and shallowness in school textbooks, by Frances FitzGerald and others, there is as yet little discernible improvement of standards. The chief offenders here are the editors, and the salespeople, of the big textbook publishing firms.

This writer temporarily is involved in the production of textbooks himself, having been Hung into a breach as director of the social-science program of the Educational Research Council of America (which does not publish textbooks, but instead prepares the manuals and other materials, tests them in schools, and then contracts with a commercial publisher). So I see a good deal at first hand of the difficulties encountered in turning out decent textbooks, and hear of still others from a variety of editors and writers of educational materials.

RK

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Russell Kirk

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Despite the hue and cry justly raised against ideology and silliness and shallowness in school textbooks, by Frances FitzGerald and others, there is as yet little discernible improvement of standards. The chief offenders here are the editors, and the salespeople, of the big textbook publishing firms.

This writer temporarily is involved in the production of textbooks himself, having been Hung into a breach as director of the social-science program of the Educational Research Council of America (which does not publish textbooks, but instead prepares the manuals and other materials, tests them in schools, and then contracts with a commercial publisher). So I see a good deal at first hand of the difficulties encountered in turning out decent textbooks, and hear of still others from a variety of editors and writers of educational materials.