So I got an invite from a friend to go help clean out one of his high school’s book closets. I took up the challenge because I knew the next couple hours we're going to be filled with strong educational topics as well as some playful banter back and forth. What I was not prepared for was what awaited me on the other side of the door. Shelves upon shelves of textbooks, test prep books, classic American literature, translation dictionaries (I’m talking about at least 300 of the same book), and workbooks. As we were throwing away bags full, no carts full, of books that were copyrighted over 10 years ago and hundreds of workbooks with absolutely no writing in them I began to let my eyes wander to other shelves. One shelf in particular had what looked like brand new SAT prep textbooks dated 2015-2016. Being the inquisitive, push-back type of person I am I opened the book to see a retail price of $29.95. At this point I had to count all of this particular book on the three shelves in front of me...$4,000 was sitting on three shelves, some not even containing a crease in the spine.
This occurred fresh off the conclusion of ISTE 2018 so of course I had to equate the money sitting on the shelf to sending about 10 people, registration fully paid, to this wonderful event and all of the learning that actually could have taken place versus buying these books. And this was just three shelves out of hundreds. How much more money was thrown away? Books that contain the same information that is freely accessible through a Google search using the phone in your pocket or the one-to-one laptops that schools have.
If you are a principal, assistant principal, supervisor, coach, school business administrator, superintendent, or member of the school board I urge you to go into the book closets of your schools and take a look at the thousands of dollars we are wasting on certain types of texts. Those of you who know me know I am an avid reader so I am not discrediting the value of a hard copy of a book. I think my message is obviously different than that. We cannot continue to complain about budget cuts and “having no money” when we continue to be wasteful with the funds we are provided. Think about how many trainings, conferences, student events, community projects, or just about anything else could have been funded with just that shelf.
ML 7/30/18