INDIANAPOLIS — The state Board of Education says it recently discovered what students yawning through social studies class may already know — their textbooks are boring.
Members of the board, which routinely approves books for schools statewide, said the publications were so dull they recently tried to reject the list of social studies texts.
They later changed their minds after state schools chief Suellen Reed urged the group to approve the books so that schools could buy them at a discounted rate.
Reed acknowledged that many of the books don’t read well, however, and the board voted to send letters to schools warning that the books may be too monotonous for kids.
“I found them to not do very much other than be a travelogue through history,” said board member David Shane. “They were dry as dust to me.”
Shane said the books didn’t give students a real sense of the controversies of the past. They did not offer a way to determine the importance of World War II in history, he said, or provide enough details for students to determine that slavery was bad.
Some teachers say social studies books have been dull for decades.
“I just think the books are sterile,” said Robert Brady, director of social studies for Indianapolis Public Schools. “All the fun is softened. When I read history, the controversies are what’s interesting. ... The actual content is watered down.”
Teachers use discussions and interactive assignments to spice things up, said Bill Gulde, a history teacher at North Central High School in Indianapolis. He assigns students individual research projects and has turned classes into debates.
“Some of the books are dry and boring, but if you’re doing your job right, the textbook is just a supplement,” he said. “Social studies is much more than just a workbook and a textbook anymore.”
A spokeswoman for McGraw-Hill said the company has worked hard to make books interesting.
“Our programs, specifically designed to state standards, include many components that increase students’ interactivity with our content including stories, class projects and Web sites that contain games, animations and other digital tools,” spokeswoman Mary Skafidas said.
Textbooks often use more exciting narrative storytelling techniques along with opposing sides so students can form their own opinions, said Gary B. Nash, director of the National Center for History in Schools. Nash said textbooks today are more interesting than ever before.
“That was one of the main criticisms of the older books, that the publishers in trying to offend no one ended up with oatmeal,” he said. “I would love to see if some of the members could go up to their attics and find the textbooks they studied as sixth- or ninth-graders. They would be very, very different.”
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2:36 p.m.: Indiana Board of Education bored with textbooks
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