Photo Essay: A dumpster full of books at Albemarle High School
By Schilling Show on Jun 07, 2009 with Comments 6
These photographs, taken at 6:15 PM on Sunday, June 7, by a concerned citizen and Schilling Show listener show a dumpster loaded with discarded books and other instructional materials (overhead transparencies, etc.) at Albemarle High School, apparently destined for Van der Linde Recycling.
While the pictures speak for themselves, one must wonder if there wasn’t a better alternative than destruction, for the knowledge contained within.
If you are in the vicinity of Albemarle High School, it may be worth a quick dumpster dive before the rain sets in.
Filed Under: Schools and Education
Those Psych texts are way old– the ” DSM III” you have taken a few pix of is at least 10 years out of date.It truly is garbage. School texts outdate as well, because, well, things happen and life needs updating.. I hope they are at least recycling this stuff.
It looks like a guidance counselor’s library.
Regardless whether the texts are outdated, perhaps a better destination would have been the McIntire Recycling Center book exchange or the Jefferson-Madison Library for its annual book sale. Who knows who may found value in those books?!
Many of the books are old but I have seen far older books in worse condition at the library book sales.
Rob said today, on-air, that there were also transparencies, art pics/photos and other instructional materials. There probably was lots of stuff people could still have used.
As an aside, I remember a teacher in another state telling me a long time ago that at her school there were locked closets full of textbooks and supplementary materials (worth LOTS of $$) that were never used. The district spent the money on unneeded materials and books so they could justify the amount of their budget. If they didn’t spend the money that year then they were afraid they would get less $$$ the following year.
Old books have more content. It’s a sad commentary when we dumb down our textbooks and think the more rigorous, more comprehensive books are out-dated because of the copyright year. Things change. But do fundamentals, math, science, classics change? How much money could we save if we kept good books and purchased updated info instead of revisions? How often is history revised? Trashing books, burning books. What’s the difference?
[...] a recent photo essay, The Schilling Show blog chronicled apparent waste of valuable, taxpayer-funded resources (books, overhead slides, instructional materials, etc.) by Albemarle High School staff, teachers [...]