What follows is a piece to be printed in our
college newsletter. It addresses the old issue.
TELL IT TO THE AUTHOR,
TELL TO THE PUBLISHER
After teaching introductory physics courses
for more than three decades I observe a
trend which is, in my opinion, very undesirable.
While most of today's textbooks are excellent,
on the whole they are too large and contain
too much material. The situation in other areas
of science is likely to be similar.
I understand the motivation; the publishers want
their books to be used in a variety of courses
and they want teachers to decide what to cover
and what to skip, according to specific needs.
They also want to maximize sales. But what
effect does book size have on students? I am
not going to address the issue of cost of textbooks,
except by noting that students are forced to pay
for what is not used. My main concern is the
possible psychological effect. Students are
deprived of the pleasure which comes from the
feeling of mastering "nearly everything" in a
textbook.
A typical College Physics textbook, now over
1000 pages long, could be reduced to about
300 pages. The content should be limited to
what can realistically be covered in the course
for which the textbook is designed. If it were up
to me I would decide (on the basis of a valid
survey) what should be covered in all college
physics courses, from community colleges to
top universities. That "common denominator"
would then be a guide for deciding what to
retain and what to eliminate. Some topics
would be shifted to advanced courses, as in
the past. Depth of coverage of basic material
does not have to be sacrificed by reducing
quantity. To satisfy specific needs I would
produce short supplements that could be
purchased, only if needed.
P.S.
I predict the the first author who succeeds in
writing a much shorter, but still good, textbook
will make a lot of money.