Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-05-13

'>'@s+. >s.,ss..,.... e.e.>, 49,.
Drawn for The Sunday Star by Marie A.
Lawson.
/ the buildings normally outlast the
books. l say normally, because old
books in new buildings are seen with
increasing frequency. A city that
invested in new school Libraries in
1880 may be excused for spending
less in the next few years. Again,
certain cities installed free textbooks
for the first time in 1881. This is
what I call an intelligent depression
policy.
The last few years, moreover, have
seen the extension of teaching meth
DDS which in part replace the stand
ard texts Some of these, such as the
use of collateral texts and library
references, the lecture system and
even educational motion pictures, may
be valuable in themselves. Others,
such as the use Of mimeographed out
lines, are often makeShiftS. In any
case, their merit depends on capable
| teacher who is not overworked. This
kind of teacher is growing more rare
as STATS are cut and classes are en-
larged.
Rackets Are Possible.
We have seen some of the bald
| figures and noted certain cualifica-
tions. If it should turn out that
school children are learning as much
as ever. with or without new books,
publishers would complain, but not I.
I believe that annual models are a
| form of waste. and I can see the
| possibility of a rather juicy racket
| in a stream of revised editions, each
making the last obsolete by virtue of a
few new footnotes and generous in
crease in punctuation marks. If this
racket is practiced, however, 1 sus-
| pect it is largely in the sale of COL
! lege texts. with which We are not here
| concerned. The tendency in board
supplied elementary texts IS. if any,
| thing, the reverse. Publishers have
to hold back on revisions as long
as schools wish to buy replacement
copies of old editions. Otherwise,
when teacher. says Turn to page
1911" and pupils find discrepancies in
! page 121 of the old books. the proc
esses of education become tangled.
At any rate. let us forget sales for
the moment and look at some of the
books themselves. books from which
children are being taught this year
Here. in a city in Ohio (but it is not
Dayton and it might as we'll be in
II.
using texts in algebra and English
| published IS years ago. and texts in
! physiology and zoology published 81
! years ago. Even # 27-year-old zoology
texts do not go so far as to deny
evolution they must present strange
view Of the lower animals, with at
! least one whole branch of the science.
the major field of genetics. missing
entirely GeneticS is all a product of
the last generation. The United States
history books used in the same city
mention no events later than the
administration of Harding Although
that ornament to our Government
came from Ohio. should be sorry to
have Ohio children consider him the
last word in Presidents. Even this is
better, however. than ending with
Cleveland in 1896, as cited earlier.
A Text of 1922.
Here are business students in a
Pennsylvania town learning CONNER
cial geography from a text published
in 1922, since when commercial
geography has changed so fast and
so much that the information will be
practically worthless when these stu
are two counties in Illinois which have
not changed basic text for IL years
or more. and towns in Maryland
Baltimore Is one-in which textbooks
discontinued Is or 20 years ago.
| presumably because they were then
obsolete, have been reSurrected, busted
of and passed out to classes. All over
the country children are being sent
out into the stiffest situation any
generation of innocent graduates has
ever had to face, armed with pictures
Of the world as it was a decade ago.
or before the war, or a quarter century
and more in the past.
Suppose a given community changes
one title year in books supplied to
high schools. Most high schools use
at least so textbooks, so that each
one would be so years old before its
turn came around. The normal rota-
ton is fortunately somewhat faster,
but when time out is called during a
depression it will be painful and ex-
pepSive to catch up later.
Think We are safe in assuming that
the lnsides of many school textbooks
at best none too close to reality
are hardly within hailing distance of
the world we live in today. Let us
now turn from the spiritual to the
physical. and look at their material
condition.
Worn Out Books.
In School Life" for March there is
a photograph of some scraps of dirty
paper and an old wreck of a binding.
which must once have been a book.
| perhaps this Is an unfair example,
but do not think so. Books cannot
be handled daily until they attain the
extreme ages noted above without
showing wear and tear. Reliable re-
f>SA " NSoSAAbN bOOho AdlACll OuI VI Lll6lE
bindings and held together with
rubber bands; others crudely rebound
by newly organized classes in book
binding; books disintegrated to the
point where no effort is made to keep
them together and the separate folios
which interfere with learning more
than they advance it. by the illegibil-
ity of their dirt-crusted type.
| Sometimes the student cannot
study from his book at all because it
is lent him for the recitation only,
passing from class to class all day.
AS compared with this merry-go-
round almost prefer a certain COL
lege town whose grade school super
intendent regretfully admitted that
many pupils did not have a textbook
in their hands for more than four
months out Of the year. And even