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
Textbook-l mailing list Textbook-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/textbook-l
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