Thursday
May292008
College Textbooks
Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 01:10PM
Everyone knows that college textbooks are ridiculously expensive and offer very little turnaround when selling them. I've bought a $165 physics book that in return, sold for $80 after two semesters of using it. They go down in value (especially when selling back to campus bookstores) extremely fast. It's really sad that bookstores screw the students over so much on these books. Truthfully, if I could guarantee that I could see all of the book online somewhere, such as Google's book scanning project, I wouldn't buy the damn textbook.
No no no, don't get your panties in a bunch yet. I'm not here to yodel about the cost of college textbooks. That's old complaints and anyone who has been in college, has kids in college, or has ever watched television dealing with college students, knows that textbooks are overpriced chunks of paper with excrement written down the page. I'm here to complain about professors actually. And here is my complaint for the day: professors who read, line by line, the textbook to the class and then proceeds to write the textbook, word for word, onto the blackboard, overhead projector, or tablet laptop computer.
What point is this serving? If I wanted to read the damn book, I'd sit down and read the damn book. I come to class to receive examples or outside opinions. I have a book so that I can work exercises and see things from a different perspective. If you're going to freaking recite the book to me in class, why not tell me so before the semester starts so I can save some money. I'm paying ridiculous amounts of money to attend college (and that cost will increase dramatically next semester when I start working on my Masters degree). I'm not paying you to read a freaking book to me. Ok? I don't give a damn if you can read the book back to me. That's great. I know second graders who could do that for me and I wouldn't have to pay them as much.
The big pain about the professors who do this, is that they really don't help at all. I'm actually pretty sure that they know nothing of the subject they are teaching. When you ask them for another example, they look at you blankly and tell you that they worked an example from the book and that you can look there for help. Really? Well guess what. The books are written in such a horrible fashion, that it's damn near impossible to read a textbook and not want to hurl yourself head first into the nearest wall. Who writes these damn things? Better yet, who in the blue hell makes out the examples? I have books that show examples that assume you already know how to do the majority of the problem. What the hell? If I knew how to do most all of it, then I wouldn't need this introductory book, now would I?
Don't get me wrong, I have learned a lot in college, but at the same time, I have wasted many hours listening to people who are there to prove they can read. Instead of narrators for the next Fall semester, how about we get teachers for a change.
No no no, don't get your panties in a bunch yet. I'm not here to yodel about the cost of college textbooks. That's old complaints and anyone who has been in college, has kids in college, or has ever watched television dealing with college students, knows that textbooks are overpriced chunks of paper with excrement written down the page. I'm here to complain about professors actually. And here is my complaint for the day: professors who read, line by line, the textbook to the class and then proceeds to write the textbook, word for word, onto the blackboard, overhead projector, or tablet laptop computer.
What point is this serving? If I wanted to read the damn book, I'd sit down and read the damn book. I come to class to receive examples or outside opinions. I have a book so that I can work exercises and see things from a different perspective. If you're going to freaking recite the book to me in class, why not tell me so before the semester starts so I can save some money. I'm paying ridiculous amounts of money to attend college (and that cost will increase dramatically next semester when I start working on my Masters degree). I'm not paying you to read a freaking book to me. Ok? I don't give a damn if you can read the book back to me. That's great. I know second graders who could do that for me and I wouldn't have to pay them as much.
The big pain about the professors who do this, is that they really don't help at all. I'm actually pretty sure that they know nothing of the subject they are teaching. When you ask them for another example, they look at you blankly and tell you that they worked an example from the book and that you can look there for help. Really? Well guess what. The books are written in such a horrible fashion, that it's damn near impossible to read a textbook and not want to hurl yourself head first into the nearest wall. Who writes these damn things? Better yet, who in the blue hell makes out the examples? I have books that show examples that assume you already know how to do the majority of the problem. What the hell? If I knew how to do most all of it, then I wouldn't need this introductory book, now would I?
Don't get me wrong, I have learned a lot in college, but at the same time, I have wasted many hours listening to people who are there to prove they can read. Instead of narrators for the next Fall semester, how about we get teachers for a change.
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