Jimmy Wales wrote:
Sanford Forte wrote:
If someone wants to write a non-standards-based
approach to a K-12
subject for *private* schools, go right ahead. In doing so, be aware
that that open source book will NOT be adopted en masse, by any large
entity. It will be a one-at-a-time adoption, by one school at a time
(as by public schools in states without curriculum standards,
mentioned above)
And outside of Christian schools, who might be actively seeking an
alternative to secular texts, there is not much reason for most private
schools to want to deviate a lot from state standards.
And I suspect that our NPOV approach to the world is not really going to
work very well for most Christian schools. (Though, non-NPOV forks of
our basic work might succeed. Someone else will have to make those,
though, for the obvious reasons.)
--Jimbo
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Good points Mr. Forte and Jimbo,
Personally I do not think the impetus for change will come from the
within the system unless and until professional teachers and
administrators step up inside those systems and write some GPL'ed
electronic materials that can be free reviewed and shared to save their
employers some tax money.
As I see it, the drive for open source materials comes from self study
home schooling of either kids and/or adults from sheer interest and/or
in attempts to pass valuable certifications.
I devoured everything the public school system in several U.S. states
set before me in accordance with standards and found it a poor
preparation for serious study at university despite high SAT scores.
I think the real benefit of open source textbooks is to serious students
interested in learning, not studying for tests to provide bonuses to
teachers under no child left behind programs. Their effective use
should result in high SAT scores providing opportunity to join excellent
university programs as well as adequate grounding to allow excellent
performance in first and second year university courses.
In other words, I think Wikibooks NPOV textbooks should be standards
plus, not standards only. If this is met in some or all K1-K12 cases
by standards only texts with augmenting texts then I think that would
also be satisfactory for serious students, parents, and self study scholars.
Sincerely,
mirwin