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ESL forum >
Message board > About textbooks
About textbooks
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grimsim
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About textbooks
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Hello everyone,
I would like to ask you a question and hope you will be able to answer it:
Why do most texbooks not teach family values?
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30 Aug 2010
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Lina Ladybird
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Maybe because authors and publishers think it �s not an interesting topic for students of the English language?? Actually, you could write to some publishing houses and ask them for their reasons! ;))
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30 Aug 2010
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carlacarioca
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In fact they have a list of themes they �re sopposed to cover; here in Brazil, for example, the topics of the units in the coursebooks produced for brazilian students are based on the PCN (Par�metros Curriculares Nacionais), which is our schools � national standards; so, here in Brazil (at least) it �s not up to the author or the publisher to decide! But I DO agree with you those topics should be part of the coursebooks, as well.
Regards from Brazil!
Carla. |
30 Aug 2010
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s.lefevre
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Maybe, traditional family values are not the same in diffent countries and the publishers don �t want to offend anybody. |
30 Aug 2010
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Olindalima ( F )
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I agree with S�lvia, traditional family values are very different from place to place; moreover, in many countries traditional families are no more what they were some 20 years ago: children, parents and, many times, grandparents quite near, it might also be that there was an aunt or an uncle, who hadn �t got married ( yet, or for ever ).
Nowadays, my students live with a father or a mother, most of the times with a step who usually also brings his/her own kids to the new family, so, without a traditional family ( the way we used to call it ), values have to change.
My case, I spent last Christmas eve with a new member and I lost the old one, whom I did love _ my niece got divorced, got another boyfriend and that way I had that fellow, sitting at my Christmas dinner table ( this year I �ll , probably get his daughter, too ).
Values, ???? as Dylon said " The times, they are a changing ".
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30 Aug 2010
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S.Reisner
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Yes, I do agree with S.Lefevre.
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30 Aug 2010
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libertybelle
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Even though things have changed - family values are still the same.
No one gets married in hope of getting divorced!!
Most people get married to build a family, learn/build/pass on family values, traditions, faith, manners, social skills and more.
Most people hope a relationship will last. That value hasn �t changed.
Why more and more get divorced and break up the family structure probably has as many reasons as there are people. But one thing I �ve read is that people give up too easily, demand too much of each other, haven �t learned to prioritize what is important and when to compromise.
Divorced or not - we still must teach our children to be polite and treat others with respect. Those values are handed down and should remain a part of any child �s upbringing.
L
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30 Aug 2010
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MarionG
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What do you mean when you say books don �t reflect traditional values?
In our book, the family still consists of one father and one mother living together even though that doesn �t hold true for most of the kids in class. I personally would welcome it if the books would enlarge the repertoire of words to include vocabulary indicating the family situations the kids live in.
Maybe I actually think the books are too �old-fashioned/traditional �
Teaching words such as divorced, same sex, single or step-parent IMHO doesn �t mean you don �t teach family values. True family values, for me, are those emphasizing mutual respect, support, love etc. The family of today may not be traditional, that still doesn �t mean the values aren �t traditional (as libertybell said as well) Maybe those values are not dealt with in most textbooks simply because to discuss these subjects students need to have a much higher level of English. The books are more geared to teaching the vocabulary itself and IMHO they don �t generally give enough vocabulary to really discuss it...
Maybe you mean that even though the family unit is a traditional one you can find mothers working outside the house and fathers doing the dishes? Is that not �traditional � in your eyes?
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30 Aug 2010
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tastybrain
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Sorry. I �d like to help, but I don �t understand the question. Can you give an example of what you mean? Do you mean that the textbooks don �t directly teach family values or that the people/characters in them do things that violate your sense of what a traditional family does?
It may be that your sense of what a traditional family values is not actually very traditional on a mainstream scale. I for one, see lots of textbooks that foster and encourage traditional Chinese family values. It �s hard to find ones that don �t, in fact.
We would also be able to help you much better if you described what you view to be traditional family values and what cultural environment you are teaching in.
Hope that helps.
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30 Aug 2010
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lshorton99
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It may well be that the idea of traditional family values is too closely linked to religion. Textbooks, in my experience, never talk about religion, except when mentioning different religious festivals. With the idea of what is right and wrong in the sense of family values generally being dictated by one religion or another, it �s not really surprising that textbooks don �t deal with it directly. Instead, more general topics such as Sports, Entertainment, Travel are used as the themes and teachers are free to connect these to the values the wish to impart or not. The majority of students come to class to learn English, not to have a way of life dictated to them. I �m quite happy to discuss issues such as abortion and euthanasia with a group of students if that �s what they want but I wouldn �t bring it up myself. With more and more children coming from non-traditional homes, I feel that textbooks imparting �family values � would be make them feel that their background is somehow less valued, which I personally don �t agree with and I hope that textbook writers don �t either.
If you want to teach family values in your class, that is your choice, but I can �t see it being something that most people would want in an English language teaching textbook.
Lindsey
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30 Aug 2010
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