Many times when it comes to textbooks and resources in education, there are outdated examples and stories. As generations come and go, many old resources stay in the classrooms due to budget cuts and underfunding. This can have a negative impact on some children and their experience in academics, as they can get the wrong idea at impressionable ages.
Many old books and sources have “out of touch” material with things that parents can find offensive.
Some outdated books have gender stereotypes from a time where women and men were expected to live in very small, gender-specific boxes. For kids who are growing up in modern society, it can be confusing.
Sometimes, kids don’t relate to outdated material.
With technology advancing and kids using “newer” items, some of the older books don’t make much sense to them when they’re learning.
There are, however, many issues that come with resources in schools.
While having up-to-date material seems great, it sometimes is not feasible for some school districts.
Many school budgets have been cut in recent years.
While budgets supply many things, one major thing a school budget is used for is resources and supplies for students to use.
Therefore, some say that it’s important to fund education, above all.
Overall, many believe that funding education is imperative so that supplies and materials can be updated and used by students all over.
Recently, one dad opened up on Twitter about a math book that had some outdated examples for math problems.
William Sutcliffe posted about the math book that is used throughout Scotland that features some word problems that are “outdated” and sexist.
The word problems have women who go to “health resorts to lose weight.”
Additionally, the male characters only go to the gym. So, William and his wife started to correct the word problems by switching the genders of the people in the problems to make a statement about how much has changed since these examples were first written.
People online also spoke out after seeing William’s tweet.
One teacher said that it’s clear that the worksheet is a portrayal of people who do not care, and it’s easy to reprint and change the worksheet to something more appropriate.
While it seems ideal to just use “updated resources,” many teachers don’t have that luxury.
One Twitter user pointed out that teachers don’t just “find resources,” they are forced to use what is given to them. Which, many times of course, is not much.
Some people felt it was “inappropriate” to criticize teachers, especially right now.
Some say that it’s difficult to be a teacher in the middle of this pandemic, juggling absolutely everything at once. It’s not the time to call teachers out for “menial things.”
However, someone else pointed out it’s not the school or the teacher’s fault.
One Twitter user said that it’s not about the schools, but instead about the publishers of the book who feel as though it’s acceptable to publish things like this.
Some other parents said that schools still have sexism, even outside of the textbooks.
One mom said her daughter’s school had a “drugs talk” at school and they had some very specific gender stereotypes and consequences for students who are thinking about drinking.
And others added it’s a bigger issue.
One Twitter user pointed out it’s not a school or a teacher issue, and instead it is an “education” issue, saying the structure is “patriarchal.”
The tweet seemed to stir up a lot of conversation around education and funding/resources.
Parents across Twitter jumped in sharing their own experiences with lack of current and updated resources, while others who work in education shared the downfalls of having no budgets for these resources altogether.
After the tweet went viral online, the company who published the textbook reached out to William.
The company, Teejay Maths, reached out to William on Twitter and apologized for the outdated material. They admitted that the content is old and that they are working/have worked to ensure they update their resources.
Obviously, William was happy to hear back from the company.
William was happy to see that the company took the time to reach out to him and admit their wrongdoings and faults in the outdated content.
It goes to show parents, sometimes social media can help you out.
When you want to reach out to a company for the benefit of change, it can be helpful to reach out to companies online. You never know if they will respond!
h/t Bored Panda
