When I was in ninth grade, my dad (a professor) did something very un-parent-like and bought be the teacher’s edition of my geometry textbook, along with a Mac geometry tutorial program. I cruised through both and the class was a breeze. I didn’t use the back of the book to cheat on my homework — I used it to get through the material more efficiently.

I think the problems Godin points out could (and should) be resolved by fewer bad textbooks and reform to the textbook business, along with the supplementary material of the sort he describes. I wonder if extending the intended audience to self-teaching non-students could help shift the business model.

Re-reading Godin’s post, I noticed a potential problem with his proposed solution. If you rely on professors to write their own class texts, you’re going to get some great material, but you’ll also get a lot of terrible material. Even a professor who is a gifted lecturer may be ineffective as a writer. Most professors would probably help their students more by gathering the best of published material, rather than making their own.

What drives me nuts about textbooks are the publishers refuse to consider an audience beyond college students in a specific class. You cannot get teachers’ guides or solution manuals unless you are a bona fide teacher. I can work through the texts, but if I’m making an egregious (or stupid) error, I really have no way to be sure.