Are textbooks bought by the parents?

[Browncoat Japhy]

Hey, I just has an Elementary class go nuts at me with disgust today when I told them that in America the school buys the books for each grade and then keeps them after the school year for the next group of students. They all seemed to think that this was ridiculous and stated that they could keep theirs forever.

Just curious if the parents pay for the textbooks or not? If not then it seems like a bit of a waste for tax payers.

[sarahcon]

I was curious about that as well. In Ireland we tend to have a text book and then do all our work in copies / note books. I found it a bit waste full that the students all write in the books and then throw them away when their finished. We always passed out books along 'back in my day' and I think students still do for the most part. However it seems here that all students get new books each year here and the school / government provides them. I'm not 100% sure if the parents pay a specific fee for them. 

[makeshiftb0y]

I don't know if it's different from others since I'm in a private high school, but my students (or their parents) pay for their own books. There's a bookstore down the street that sells all the books my school uses. A few of my students have lost some of their books already and had to go there after school to buy new ones.

[profmiscreant]

I was under the impression that they have to pay for them... They might not pay 100%, but I've been told they do buy them.

[sunshinefiasco]

If the way my kids treat their books is any indicator, there is no WAY the parents pay for them. Though, considering how the teachers let them get away with it, it doesn't seem like the school does either.

[JazzRat]

I'm at a public school and the students don't have to pay for their textbooks. This is evident in their total lack of respect for them. If the books even make it through the year intact they all end up in the garbage anyway

[eveliens]

My CT and I were discussing the textbook industry and how it was inconvenient that schools used different books. She implied that the parents had to pay more because of the change.

[Yu_Bumsuk]

For secondary students it's part of their school fees but these are subsidised or waved in the case of kids from low-income families.

[Browncoat Japhy]

Thanks for that. I was just curious. My students treat their books pretty badly (not that we didn't treat our school books terribly as kids) and if they lose it they seem to just do without for the rest of the year. So, I really couldn't grasp what the situation was. I had really never even thought of it before until they were so shocked that we had to turn ours back in.