Funding for schoolbooks

[janh]

It was DS1's parents' evening yesterday and his English teacher told me of two really frustrating things that have happened recently.

1. The syllabus for English (don't know which board) required them to provide a specific edition of Of Mice and Men for last year's Y10 (DS1 is Y11 now) - 120 copies at £6.99 each. For this year's Y10, the board has removed Of Mice and Men from the syllabus, so now £2400-worth of books which will only have been used once (in the exam) will be useless at the end of this year.

(This is different for English than for other subjects, because they are allowed to take the texts into the exam for reference, although they must be unannotated - parents have paid for a second copy of each text which they can write in, so that the school's copies are kept clean for exam use.)

2. Funding for 6th-form students' texts has until now been provided for each student who enters the 6th form to do English Lit. It will now be provided only for each one who completes the course - so:

a) there will be no funding for 2 years until this year's entrants leave and

b) they will all still have to be provided with texts at the start but if they drop out those texts won't be paid for.

It makes me wonder how parents would feel if they were asked to pay themselves for both copies of the English texts? It wouldn't be a lot individually but would make quite a difference to the school's budget for books. I bet custardo has an opinion on this!

TBH it wouldn't bother me at all. It does seem ridiculous for an exam board to demand particular editions of a book, although I can understand that they would want to ensure that students didn't take study guides into an exam. Text books are actually worthwhile at "A" level, unlike at uni where students buy books that are useless and they should be reading journals anyway (personal rant!).

On the first point, Janh, I'm sure 'Of Mice & Men' will be back on the syllabus in a year or two, so those books won't have been wasted.

On the second point, won't the school already have most of the texts already? The books dd is doing seem to be the same ones I did when I was at school, LOL!!!

marialuisa, I can see why the board would want every student to take the same edition into the exam, so that bit makes sense - just not why they had to use that one for lessons too - it wouldn't be any different from the ones they used before, would it? (I didn't ask her that. Too late now!)

The books have changed since I did mine, suedonim, we had turgid things like A Pattern of Islands for O Level (actually it may not be turgid really but at 15 it was dreadful!) - I can't even remember what the A Level texts were, apart from Chaucer (The Prologue and the Pardoner's Tale) and Shakespeare (Othello) but DD1 had Alan Bennett's Talking Heads and A Handmaid's Tale, much more relevant and interesting for teenagers I think. (Plus Chaucer and Shakespeare.)

(BTW, presumably you did Chaucer too, was the Penguin Neville Coghill still around for yours? A big black book, an excellent translation which rhymed and scanned too - apparently it no longer exists, all DD1 had was a photocopy of a rough translation done by a teacher's husband.) (Is translation the right word?)

You're probably right about Of Mice and Men coming back in due course, but because it has been on the syllabus for years already the school already had plenty of copies - it was having to buy this specific fairly expensive edition that she was so fed up about.

Not sure about the current 6th form texts - maybe they have changed too, she didn't specify.

This seems a bit mad to me. Can I ask a stupid question though? How do the editions differ? I can see that study versions of a book might not be acceptable for use in an exam since they'd be full of information you wouldn't want students to have in the exam but surely my copy say, ought to be OK for general study use? I can understand a certain edition being necessary if the work is a particular translation for example but otherwise? Am I being thick? I'd be cross if I was asked to pay for 2 copies (or any copies actually!) of English texts since I pay taxes and they should be paying for these books IMO (without wishing to get involved in a long debate on that subject!) But yes, two and a half grand of a dept budget for a one off purchase sounds very silly indeed.

I've never heard of A Pattern of Islands, Janh!! Who wrote it? We did DH Lawrence's Sons and Lovers and Golding's Lord of the Flies. Ds and dd have done the latter, as well as Pride and Prejudice. I think ds did Macbeth while dd is doing Romeo and Juliet, which I also did. I expect the syllabus is different in Scotland anyway!

Arthur Grimble wrote a Pattern of Islands - it was about being a Victorian or Edwardian colonial civil servant 'in charge of' a group of Polynesian Islands in his early 20s. Written in a humourous vein, funny in parts, but never heard of now. Bit like James Herriot, but with South Sea Islanders instead of the dour Yorkshiremen. Never heard of now - probably not PC enough. Must have done it as the same time as you, janh!

We had to buy all our own books for A level English Lit (but weren't allowed to take them into the exam so could write in them). In fact, we had to pay for all our A level text books IIRC.

www, I don't know how they differ...in fact I am confused myself now. DS1 wasn't here earlier, I have now checked and his OMAM is a bog standard Penguin, price £4.99. He hasn't seen the one to take into the exam but assumes it is the same. (Incidentally he hasn't written anything in his anyway!!!) But the teacher definitely said it was £6.99. Hm. However he has a hardback Romeo & Juliet, Heinemann Educational edition, with precis and introduction, which we also had to buy and that may well have been £6.99 so maybe that's what she was thinking of.

And, final confusion for today - I hope - dunno where I got £2400 from! 120 x 7 is 840.

He has also done The Crucible, I don't think we had to buy that one but for that the board has changed its requirements retrospectively and, having done all the coursework on it last year, they now have to do another bit in the middle of what they're doing now. Bonkers.

suedonim, I don't remember the author of A Pattern of Islands but he was a District Commissioner (? colonial post) in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands and it was about his life there, between the wars I think. Does that sound gripping? I still can't remember which modern novels we studied for A level though - can remember the French ones (Antigone and Le Grand Meaulnes) but not the English. It's going to bother me now! (I liked yours better anyway.)

Oh, Copper, thanks! That wasn't there when I started last post. Was it really set that long ago? I can't remember the tiniest detail about it but was thinking it must have been James Herriot with Brown People. I did O Level in 1967 - when was yours?

Soupie, I'm surprised you had to buy your books - when and where was that?

What do we all think about students being allowed to take their texts in to the exam anyway, instead of having to learn great indigestible chunks? It seems very sensible to me but if they can do it in English why not in the other subjects...after all, outside exams knowing where to look for information is the most useful skill!

Funnily enough, Janh and Coppertop, I've just read a similar book about Indonesia. But this is from the mid-1800's when it was still the Dutch East Indies and it was a protest story about the way the Dutch treated local people. It triggered off the yearning for independence, which Indonesia eventually got in 1945. The book is called Max Haavelaar - forgotten who wrote it and I don't think anyone would read it unless they had an interest in the subject!!

Coppertop?? Blame my low blood sugar - I'm starving!!

Sutton, mid-late 1980s. Books were provided up to O level but A level ones had to be bought yourself. The school actually bought them and you then had to pay for them and you could buy/sell them second hand too.

Well, I wasn't allowed to take my text books into my O and A levels (and certainly didn't buy them either) but I do think it's a goodish idea. Am starting a dry as dust course for work soon and we will be able to take the text book in with our own notes in it. Which is realistic - in real life I'd not be expected to answer some complex query without referring to a book. BUT I really don't think you get that much chance to look at your own notes too much - think it's more of a safety blanket really.

I had to buy my own A level texts. This was in the early 90's at a 6th form college. (Only Catholic and private schools here have their own 6th form)

I sat 2 different exam boards, for theatre studies we were allowed to take annotated texts in with us but not for English lit. The only reasons I can think of for specifying a particular edition is translation, scholarship (eg. some editions of Shekspeare are based on different folios) or if a particular edition contains too much critical bumph at the front which could be referred to in the exam.

Just a thought about why a certain edition for the exam: maybe the questions will refer to a specific paragraph or section of the book, and for quik referencing it may give a page and paragraph number. I don't teach English so I don't know, just a possibility.

I am very sure the same books will be used again another year. I did Of Mice and Men for GCSE English in 1989 so it probably does its rounds. I guess this may be to avoid utter boredom for teachers. Can you imagine teaching exactly the same textx year after year?