Book Fair

 

 

One day, very soon, you'll wake up and be in love with the world than you have in many moons. The sun will shine brighter, the birds will sing a happier song, and everyone you meet will have a big, wide smile on their face. If they’re like us, that is.

 

My people, you may be comforted: That day, I promise, will be here very soon. In fact, in about two days – when school begins! That's when our race – the adult race, that is – gets to breathe a sigh of relief. After two months “I'm bored,” the young 'uns will now have the work and challenges they so obviously crave. They’re going back to school! And we, the long suffering adults? We shall sing a song of praise. Hallelujah! We're free – at least until the next vacation.

 

Of course, freedom comes at a price – a steep one, in this case. On paper, the local school system looks like a good deal; elementary grade schools are usually free, while tuition in high school is a mere fraction of what a Jewish day school in the U.S. would cost. But there are the “extras” - like paying for school textbooks, the bill for which can be considerable.

 

 

Of course, there are some ways around this textbook switcheroo scam. In many communities, enterprising parents hold book trading fairs prior to the beginning of the school year, where they sell their no longer needed fifth grade textbooks to the next set of ten year olds, while they shop for books on the sixth grade list from parents whose kids have outgrown those books. Some parents organize during the previous school year and attempt to prevail upon the school administrators to keep using the ninth edition of a math textbook that is in plentiful, cheap supply at used book outlets, instead of opting for the newly published eleventh edition that can only be purchased in its fresh-off-the-press, much more expensive form.

 

 

 

And what Wikipedia has done to Encyclopedia Brittanica, Wikibooks hopes to do to textbook publishers. A Wikibook textbook may or may not be a text already published. Many of the books have been specifically prepared for the Wikibooks site, while others are in the public domain or produced under licenses that allow free access. But the information in Wikibook textbooks is the same information in the textbooks you pay for in the bookstore.

 

 

What's that, you say – the school wants the textbooks it assigns to be in Hebrew? Well, in that case, just scroll down to the bottom of the main Wikibooks page and click on the Hebrew link (one of dozens of languages available) to check out textbooks on math, science, and other subjects, including texts to teach Bagrut students, as well as a large assortment of practice Bagrut tests in various subjects. Here's a suggestion: Invite your kids' school principal and/or teacher for some coffee, and introduce him/her to Wikibooks. Then tell them that the more you save by using free textbooks, the more money you'll have to pay higher taxes, which will go to giving them raises. If that doesn't motivate them to enlist Wikibook's free textbooks, nothing will!