To the first GUEST posting, that was one of the things the author noted was that textbooks are so boring and boringly the same these days. She said a lot of them are written by committee and that some even have names of authors from so long ago that they are dead; the books are kept going with committee updates, etc. of course, it was pointed out that teachers can buy different books, but what teacher has that kind of funding?

Most children today cannot write well, from what I saw a few years ago when I graded high school English papers and when my youngest was in college. I've seen nothing, recently, to make me think it has improved at all.

kat