MetaFilter posts tagged with textbooks

Trust in Textbooks

binturong — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:44:56 -0800

The things they teach kids in school today. Details in the pdf. From science to history to law, evidence of increasing political bias in education.

19th Century Schoolbooks

marxchivist — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:00:38 -0800

19th Century Schoolbooks, over 140 examples online. Browse the collection and find digital images of such gems as: School melodies : containing a choice collection of popular airs (1852), The American drawing-book (1847), Slate and black board exercises (1857), and of course we got your McGuffey's. Found this at the University of Pittsburgh Digital Library. Lots more good stuff online there.

Freely-available textbooks

Upton O'Good — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 23:35:44 -0800

Open Text Book: a blog which lists freely-available online textbooks. These textbooks include ones for basic and advanced math (warning: giant PDF), engineering, electronics, and philosophy, among others.

Textbook textbook writing

meech — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 16:33:07 -0800

So you want to write a textbook? Take advice from N. Gregory Mankiw who got a $1.4m advance for his book on economics. Try some advice from Garrett Bauman who says no to originality or David A Rees who says the opposite. Maybe you just need a dose of reality from the bitter guy.

Christ in the Classroom

Secret Life of Gravy — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:43:24 -0800

The Problem With Emily Dickenson "On August 25, six students, along with their school, Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, California and the Association of Christian Schools International filed a federal lawsuit against the University of California where, according to the LA Times (August 27), admissions officials have been accused of discriminating against high schools that teach creationism and other conservative Christian viewpoints." One of the textbooks used to teach literature has this to say about Mark Twain: "Twain's outlook was both self-centered and ultimately hopeless. Denying that he was created in the image of God, Twain was able to rid himself of feeling any responsibility to his Creator. "

Biomed Bookshelf

blendor — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 08:23:52 -0800

The National Center for Biotechnology Information Bookshelf. I was searching for an online version of the CD that came with my Neuroscience, 3rd ed. (Purves, et al). What I found was pretty amazing - a full, searchable online version of my book (albeit the older 2nd ed.), including full-color diagrams. The NLM under the NIH has a division called NCBI which hosts a horde of other cool books. [Other aspects of NCBI covered previously; book archive previously on AskMe; more inside]

Great resources for self taught Latin.

BeerGrin — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:53:45 -0800

Free Latin grammars and Texts are available for budding Latin scholars as well as Law and Med students who want a jump on all the professional lingo. Forum Romanorum provides very readable texts on Roman culture, life and history. Finally this better than average latin quotes page is available for the Mefites who just want to be able to spout Latin quotes (or who want to know what Latin quote gasbags are going on about)

Military Medicine

acridrabbit — Wed, 16 Jun 2004 14:06:48 -0800

The Textbooks of Military Medicine. An engrossing collection of pdf versions of textbooks used to train military medics. My favorite one is the one on War Psychiatry, which includes summaries of studies that have been done on veterans of WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, and another section on POWs and their phychiatric reactions (perhaps it might explain some things about Kerry or McCain?). Other topics include Medical Aspects of Harsh Environments (Vol. 1), Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare, and Medical Consequences of Nuclear Warfare (<-- pdf file).

Textbooks: Profit on Pupils?

ed — Tue, 21 Oct 2003 11:41:55 -0800

College Textbooks Are Half-Price Overseas. The big secret is out. As college students hammer into their piggy banks to buy books for their classes, academic publishing avarice has no limits. The results? An unexpected import-export gray market and a possible antitrust violation after previous claims of "high costs," while McGraw Hill profits. Meanwhile, Bush promises free textbooks to Iraq.

Only men bake cookies in school textbooks

dagny — Fri, 02 May 2003 05:57:44 -0800

Only men bake cookies in school textbooks. What do dinosaurs, mountains, deserts, brave boys, shy girls, men fixing roofs, women baking cookies, elderly people in wheelchairs, athletic African Americans, God, heathens, witches, owls, birthday cake and religious fanatics all have in common? Trick question? Not really. As we learn from Diane Ravitch's eye-opening book "The Language Police," all of the above share the common fate of having been banned from the textbooks or test questions (or both) being used in today's schools.

Textbook jihad

troybob — Thu, 20 Feb 2003 08:13:51 -0800

Jihad in textbooks: yesterday and today.

ncurley — Sun, 30 Jun 2002 14:54:02 -0800

Textbook Publishers Learn to Avoid Messing With Texas. "Out of Many," the work of four respected historians, is one of the biggest sellers among American history college textbooks in the United States, but it is not likely to be available to Texas high school students taking advanced placement history. Conservative groups in Texas objected to two paragraphs in the nearly 1,000-page text that explained that prostitution was rampant in cattle towns during the late 19th century, before the West was fully settled.

darren — Thu, 17 May 2001 07:05:28 -0800

Math text battles. Teachers unanimously recommended textbook series that helps students understand mathematical concepts. School Board ignored them and picked Saxon texts that promise to "raise scores on standardized tests." Are we teaching students to understand, or to score high and get politicians off the hook?

Steven Den Beste — Sun, 14 Jan 2001 22:00:08 -0800

Science textbooks are riddled with errors. It sounds like they've gotten as bad as history textbooks have been for about thirty years. How the heck does any kid learn anything in school anymore? (Answer: a lot of them don't. And no wonder.)