Textbooks in Math

I like the idea of analyzing the linguistics of a math textbook, since words is our main form of communication. The most striking find for me is the different use of pronouns in the textbooks, it’s definitely something that I don’t think of at all. When I make my YouTube videos, which are just me explaining educational science things, I always use the “we” pronoun, such as “we often see the effects of sunlight on plants.” However, it is interesting to see that the first person voice is atypical in math textbooks, with most books in “you.” It does feel like we are being directed by the textbook, instead of being encouraged to explore our own thinking. Also, phrases like in your earlier work, you saw that…” can be detrimental to those who are still struggling to keep up with the material. So I think textbooks should never be a one-sided conversation, it should either be in from the perspective of “we,” or use neutral language that don’t engage in a conversation. It feels very backwards to say that textbooks should stop connecting with the students, but that should be left to the educators instead.

So now, using textbooks is such ingrained into our education, especially in math, to the point that people will probably riot if we take it out. But, I don’t think textbooks are necessary at all for student learning. It is a very useful tool for the teachers to lesson plan, but I don’t think the students need them. Us teachers can just print out the practice questions and give out learning material for the students, instead of letting them follow a textbook. It is also valuable for the students to learn how to study by themselves if they need more resources. Textbooks benefit nobody other than the publishers and the educators, so I don’t think the students and school districts should be forking out thousands of dollars for information that is readily free and available online.