What Are Children Actually Learning From Their Textbooks?

Remember back in school, reading something in a textbook that just sounded wrong? Maybe it was a math problem with an answer that seemed incorrect, or a picture with the wrong caption. That seems to happen a lot. Some parents and educators say it's happening now more than ever, as publishers place more emphasis on profits than on text accuracy. Here are a few examples of some of the errors in today's school textbooks:


A map of North America showing the equator passing through the southern United States

A photo of singer Linda Ronstadt labeled as "a silicon crystal"; a previous edition of the same textbook had listed her as a "vacuum triode"

Two fundamental concepts from physics, energy and force, confused for each other

The plural form of "foot" given as "foots"

Mixed up acceleration and velocity, important and very different (simply, think of velocity as an object's speed and direction, and acceleration as the rate at which that velocity changes)

Photos of the Statue of Liberty in four editions of one textbook are inverted

An elephant's vocal sounds are too high pitched to be heard by humans, according to one text.

Sections on the periodic table of elements giving incorrect information about some elements' physical states (gas, liquid or solid) at specific temperatures

Aspirin is described in one book as a "synthetic polymer"

A biology textbook shows a human embryo with "gill slits"

One history book refers to Sputnik, the first Russian satellite, as a ballistic missile


This list could go on and on. You would think that these errors would be caught in the editing stage of publishing. Apparently not. What about the people who review and approve books for school systems... shouldn't they catch this stuff? Well, here's an interesting piece from the December 2000 issue of the American School Board Journal. My favorite passage:

"...the late Nobel physicist Richard Feynman described, among other things, his experience on a California textbook-adoption committee. He recalled the high ratings one book received, even though its pages were blank. (The publisher missed the deadline for submitting text, but sent a cover with blank pages so the book still would be considered.) Textbook watchers say many state and district committees still select books without anyone actually reading them."

A hardbound book with blank pages receives "high ratings." Unreal.

For more textbook errors, see this page (courtesy PhysicsToday.org) or this page or this page