Check out the following item from today's Inside Higher Ed: If Barack Obama is elected president, students upset about textbook prices may have an ally. While he hasn't proposed any legislation on the topic, he used an appearance Friday at the University of Texas-Pan American to criticize the way professors benefit from writing expensive texts. The /Chicago Tribune/ <http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/02/obama_on_a_college_textbook_ra.html> quoted him as saying: "Books are a big scam. I taught law at the University of Chicago for 10 years, and one of the biggest scams is law professors write their own textbooks and then assign it to their students. They make a mint. It's a huge racket. /The Wall Street Journal/ <http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/02/22/obama-to-students-be-careful-with-those-credit-cards/?mod=googlenews_wsj> reported that in a discussion in which Obama reiterated his criticism of private student loans, he also urged students to be careful about their own spending. "Just be careful about those credit cards, all right? Don't eat out as much," the /Journal/ quoted him saying.
I can't speak for law schools, but I don't know that anyone makes "a mint" on textbooks. If it doesn't sell well beyond one's own classes, it isn't going to be around for very long, I would guess. And doesn't it seem reasonable that if you spend a great deal of time an effort laying out a particular topic in the way you think it should be taught, that you would want to also use that book in order to teach it that way? Regards, Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ "Part of respecting another person is taking the time to criticise his or her views." - Melissa Lane, in a /Guardian/ obituary for philosopher Peter Lipton ================================= --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
