I endorse John Hubisz’s quest to improve textbooks for middle-school science courses and to stress the accuracy of the material. But perhaps emphasizing the good parts of the existing books would provide more immediate progress.
We scientists who have been working with publishers to write middle-school texts have managed to provide a lot of accurate and interesting content for students; the presence of this better material should be emphasized. Criticism may be fun—and gets a lot of publicity—but is less effective than pointing out the best of the available materials. Alternative distribution systems will not soon match those of the existing publishers, so students and teachers should be encouraged to use and appreciate the good material that exists in the current textbook system.
