[WikiEN-l] Textbooks (was: Announcing Wikimedia Foundation)

[Jimmy Wales]

Daniel Mayer wrote:
> The reason why our encyclopedias have to be NPOV is because our
> audience is a general one. The reason why our textbooks have to be
> DPOV is because our audience is very focused (the biology student,
> for example) and we need to bring that student through the material
> in a logical and efficient way.

Hmmm, don't be so quick to dismiss NPOV in this context.  Consider:

1.  Within various disciplines there are legitimate and ongoing
disputes of which students should be made aware.

2.  If "outside" views are likely to be encountered by students, then
students should be made aware of them, including the weakness in their
arguments.

> Same thing is true for a section of a medical textbook on abortion ;
> we leave out most of the history and the different political views
> on the subject and just talk about the procedure itself and maybe
> have a single paragraph at the end sating something about access to
> the procedure and that risks doctors face when they choose to
> specialize in this area.

Right, but that's not POV-editing, that's just restricting topical
focus.  Here's how to tell -- an article which describes the procedure
neutrally (and in medical detail, say) could be agreed upon by all
reasonable people, regardless of their political or ethical views on
the matter.

> So textbooks are inherently POV - that is why each time somebody tried to 
> write a textbook in Wikipedia their efforts were quickly thwarted.

I do not agree that textbooks are inherently POV.  Many *are* POV, but
that's a flaw that is likely driven by the non-consensus way in which
they are written.

I do agree that textbooks are not the same thing as encyclopedias, but
the difference is primarily one of focus, not of POV.

------------------------------

Let me give a specific example.  Many textbooks of American history or
citizenship for high school students deal with the Bill of Rights.  In
most cases, the 2nd Amendment is either ignored completely, treated as
deprecated, and presented in a fashion that is at odds with the bulk
of scholarship.

There is a controversy over the historical meaning of that amendment,
and there's room for a high school text to discuss that controversy
briefly.

Why doesn't this happen?

Because the textbooks are POV, written by people, probably honest but
not expert in this particularly issue, who have swallowed a particular
political line of thought.  It's bias, pure and simple.

Textbooks should be NPOV, just as encyclopedia articles should be
NPOV.

--Jimbo