Math textbook errors

The Sacramento California newspaper reports:

Five times three equals five.

Second-graders at 79 Sacramento-area schools can find that equation in their new math books.

Other students using the math series are being asked to count the flies in the playground – only there's no picture of a playground on the page. ...

It's not unusual to find occasional mistakes in textbooks, according to educators. But the errors popping up in the Macmillan/McGraw-Hill series are unusually pervasive: In Folsom Cordova – where some teachers have students looking for the bloopers as a learning exercise – the fourth grade has documented 90 errors in its textbook and related materials, said Assistant Superintendent Janie DeArcos.

It is a scandal that the taxpayers have to buy new math books at all. There are old math books that are much better than the modern ones, and they can be bought cheaply. Maybe the old books don't have DVDs, politically correct messages, and lobbyists vouching for them. But what is more important, learning math or watching an entertaining DVD?