Last year, eighth grade received brand new American Cultures books. The books had no markings on them, and they were up to date on facts. The students were told to put book covers on them to keep them nice and to respect them. These books will be used over the next decade or so. Considering these books are only a year old, they are much more accurate in facts than the ninth grade civics books.
The civics books that the ninth grade students own have number of things wrong with them. To start, they are falling apart. Many of the books lost most of their binding or are in danger of completely falling apart. They are already beat up from past years, and they are only getting worse. Some of the pages are torn down the middle and taped back up. There are also pencil markings and pen markings as well as vulgar words written inside.
The next thing about the civics books is they are out of date. The copyright date in the books is 2002. That was a whole eleven years ago. So much has changed in politics since then. The facts in this book were true at one time, but now they are not. For example, the current salary of an Associate Justice is $213,900. The salary that the book has written is $167,900. Another example is the salary of the Chief Justice. They currently make $223,500. The salary the book has written is $175,400. Also the names of the Justices in the book are outdated.
Society now is different from when the book was printed. There also have been many historical events that have happened over the past ten years that are important and should be put into a new book. For example, the eighth grade books have the first time President Obama was elected into office. In other words, the eighth grade book goes up to the 44th president. The ninth grade civics book goes up to the 43rd President, George W. Bush.
Hopefully new books will be bought in the near future. Maybe when the new books are bought there will also be a new online textbook to go with it.
