Textbooks

Why are school textbooks so expensive? We just got a bill for 23,400 NT — or $710 US equivalent — for books for the girls. This was the second bill and the first one was for a similar amount.

It isn’t that the books contain anything original or newly discovered or invented. It’s just the same old math equations and chemical tables and grammatical rules that we all studied in school. Why should we have to pay money for this?

Why aren’t school textbooks open source like all the best software? Why aren’t they freely available on the web? And why do schools collude with this rip-off and help enrich the Houghton-Mifflins of this world?

I have half a mind to scan all the textbooks we bought and put them on the web. Sue me you Houghton-Mifflin bastards! Let’s see if you can convince a judge somewhere that you have proprietary rights to the knowledge we want to impart to our children.

Textbooks

Why are school textbooks so expensive? We just got a bill for 23,400 NT — or $710 US equivalent — for books for the girls. This was the second bill and the first one was for a similar amount.

It isn’t that the books contain anything original or newly discovered or invented. It’s just the same old math equations and chemical tables and grammatical rules that we all studied in school. Why should we have to pay money for this?

Why aren’t school textbooks open source like all the best software? Why aren’t they freely available on the web? And why do schools collude with this rip-off and help enrich the Houghton-Mifflins of this world?

I have half a mind to scan all the textbooks we bought and put them on the web. Sue me you Houghton-Mifflin bastards! Let’s see if you can convince a judge somewhere that you have proprietary rights to the knowledge we want to impart to our children.