Of the two schools I've worked at in the 21st Century, one lends
textbooks, one sells them. At Stoneleigh-Burnham School, where I
currently work, our school store manager handles textbook ordering and
distribution, with as much faculty help as she can dredge up at the
beginning of the year. We do have a textbook buyback program.
Speaking as a Humanities teacher who uses democratic teaching
techniques, I love the flexibility of being able to custom-fit a group
novel to a unit the kids design. For example, my classes are currently
doing units on the North Pole, Dreams, and "Who am I and why do I
like/love the things I do?" and I was able to order "When Santa Fell
to Earth," "Gossamer" and "Just Ella" as group novels to complement
those units. If I were constrained by what already exists in a
departmental bookroom, I would survive (many such schools do), but my
units would be less, well, unified :-) and thus less useful to the
kids.
Take care,
Bill Ivey
Stoneleigh-Burnham School
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