Tuesday 18 July 2017

The Lifespan of a Textbook


I may be somewhat biased as a textbook writer myself, but I believe a good textbook is an invaluable resource in the classroom. There has been a tendency to put everything on a PowerPoint, which while cost saving, does mean students can spend all day staring at the whiteboard. I love to get students reading, and love those moments of silent reading within the classroom.  

See our available list here: <St Bon's Textbook Clear Out>

One of the jobs I have been strangely looking forward to in my (not so) new school was having a good old clear out. As you can see from the table above, we have collected a huge number of textbooks over the years. Some of the GCSE ones go back to 2000...

But the question remains, what do you do with them?

Some teachers are very good at changing between textbooks, remembering where the 'good bits' are for each section. I have never been very good at this. I also feel students have become accustomed to GCSE books that, in one volume, contain every thing needed. Also I wrote the latest GCSE book, and so I feel that it covers the spec well and is all a student will need for exam success! 

There was a time when many missionary religious orders would be keen on taking them and shipping them to their schools in Africa. However this is costly, and many countries have tightened up on import taxes. For those interested, I have been made away of this organisation. I have not contacted them yet about their interest in RE textbooks:


Textbooks take up a huge amount of space, and I am conscious the older they get, the less likely they are to be of use to anyone. Therefore, we are offering them to a good home: other schools, charities, missionaries. Please see our list of available books: <here>

There is no price list, but schools may hopefully be able to offer us a donation. This will go back into our RE Dept to help provide our boys with the best education we can. I do not have a large quantity of packing materials, and doing this is very time consuming so I would prefer for people to come and pick them up. 

Hopefully you will be able to help us from simply recycling these books... particularly as I am very aware one day it will be my textbook that people are trying to find a home for! 

There is no easy solution to this, textbooks have a life span. They get replaced. I am not convinced education is purely circular, especially not in RE. I think we are often moving forward, this is a good thing, but a costly thing.

Please share out list:  <here>

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