posted on Jun, 8 2005 @ 07:22 PM
Textbooks shouldn't need to be excesively lengthy. A good textbook should have concise explanations, and just cover the important content.
Encyclopedias and other books should be used for reference.
School textbooks are long for a number of reasons. First of all, they have to be politically correct, which means they need to balance the race's of
the pictures. If the book is in any way political, they have to be careful not to leave out any POWERFUL groups point of view. Next, under the rubrick
of the idiots know-nothings, who evaluate textbooks, more is better. So, they pack in lots of information. Besides, in the name of 'better'
education schools keep getting mandated to teach various things, and if the book doesn't whatever crazy thing, the schools decide is important that
year, they won't buy the book.
As far as readibility, it probably has to conform to the reading-level of the coresponding grade level. However, no one usually evaluates textbooks
for being well-written books. It will be interesting to see how this law affects the publishing industry.