18th April 2009, 11:02 AM
http://www.edutopia.org/textbook-publishing-controversy
Well... this is depressing, but it explains a lot, like why urban legends like the one about water circling the drain somehow make it into science books. It would seem there isn't some group of educated individuals actually writing these books so much as a group of editors reading older text books and just editing it down for the next generation.
Well... this is depressing, but it explains a lot, like why urban legends like the one about water circling the drain somehow make it into science books. It would seem there isn't some group of educated individuals actually writing these books so much as a group of editors reading older text books and just editing it down for the next generation.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)