Category: Parent/Teacher Collection

This category includes all parenting and education materials.

Social Psychology of Education cover

Trippy Textbook

Parent/Teacher Collection 5 comments

Social Psychology of Education
Guskin
1970

Submitter: The groovy 1970s cover caught my eye on the weeding cart! But the shabby condition and outdated content meant it had to go. See the index for Outdated Term for People of Color as well as Outdated Term for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

Holly: It’s definitely outdated! Such an odd cover, too. It breathes some life into a serious academic tome. But, the Guskins (unclear if they’re related) are well-respected scholars and the book was positively reviewed (50 years ago). It’s clearly time to weed it now for all but the most historically-centered collections.

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Dinosaurs

Evil Dinosaurs

Department of God, Parent/Teacher Collection 21 comments

Dinosaurs
The Bible, Barney, and Beyond
Phillips
1994

Phillips is an author of another book on this site, Saturday Morning Mind Control, in which the author asserts that Saturday morning cartoons are the gateway to evil. This book is more of the same. Dinosaurs, in particular Barney and Jurassic Park, are dissected for the apparent evil that lurks within these shows. He seems to have gathered that a big purple dinosaur with an annoying song about love is anti-Christian. As a mother of kids in the early 1990s, Barney wasn’t my favorite either, but I hardly would call him evil.

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Spelling Reform cover

Spelling Reform

Parent/Teacher Collection 8 comments

Spelling Reform: A New Approach
Lindgren
1969

Submitter: I found this Australian spelling reform book in an American Public Library. The problematic cover notwithstanding, this book discusses the author’s unique approach to teaching spelling, by removing some vowels. There is a wiki page all about this – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR1

Holly: Seems like an odd choice for an American public library for sure. That cover is an absolute abomination! White man’s magic?? The actual spelling reform idea is interesting, though – said becomes sed, ready becomes redy, heifer becomes hefer, friend becomes frend…spelling in English would be a lot easier to both learn and teach this way! The author would have to give up favourite for favorit, though.

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Children in Distress cover

Children in Distress

Parent/Teacher Collection 8 comments

Children in Distress
Clegg and Megson
1979

Submitter: This book may have been a good choice back in 1979- maybe in England – but today the information is totally out of date. The financial information is in British Pounds and not very helpful to the American library where this book was found.
What really makes this awful is this yellowed, brittle, and out of date book was sent to the bindery recently instead of getting weeded!

Holly: I’m sure it was fine…in England…in 1979…but it’s weed-worthy now for sure! Not just weed-worthy, actually, but never really suited to an American public library in the first place. This item was selected, acquired, cataloged, processed, shelved, and possibly even checked out by patrons expecting something more relevant before it was weeded OVER 40 YEARS LATER! Remember, collection management isn’t just selection and weeding. Every stage I just mentioned was an opportunity for someone – anyone, in possibly multiple departments – to question its validity.

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Parent Alone cover

A Parent Alone

Parent/Teacher Collection 6 comments

A Parent Alone
Bosco
1978

Submitter: This was an excellent choice for this public library, which is settled in a very Catholic neighborhood. But that was 40+ years ago and its days are over. Most of the financial advice and information is way out of date. Some of the terminology is no longer accurate. It may not be awful, but the subject is topical, and we need to keep these sections of our library up to date, something this book can no longer do.

Holly: Nice cover. Single parenting is a walk in the park! Or, apparently it was 40+ years ago.

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growing up cover

Growing Up

For the Kids, Parent/Teacher Collection 8 comments

Growing Up
de Schweinitz
1956 3rd Edition (Original Copyright: 1928)

This is another find in my Swedish Death Cleaning Project

Yes, it has been a while since I posted a selection from my Swedish death cleaning project. I did manage to clear out a bunch of stuff and recycled or donated a good chunk of the personal library. However, since we are getting carpet installed in this room and need to move the furniture around, this little gem was parked behind some stuff and fell out when we were packing stuff up.

This book is geared to children. From the text and illustrations it seems a bit much for the younger crowd, so maybe they are thinking upper elementary. It’s basic sperm meets egg. The author has some animal metaphors for how this sperm and egg thing work. We have some cameos by cows, horses, sheep, and trout. There is also an illustration of birth.

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Finger Frolics cover

Finger Frolics

Parent/Teacher Collection 13 comments

Finger Frolics: Fingerplays for Young Children
Cromwell
1983

Submitter: [This] title caught my eye on a list of books that have not circulated in 10+ years. Funny title aside, if there is one thing I know about children’s books, it’s that young’uns don’t take kindly to incorrect depictions of dinosaurs. Trust me!

Holly: Points for diverse characters on the cover. Otherwise, this is full of words and phrases kids don’t generally understand or use (what does “nick, nick, nick new” even mean?? See last image below.) The images are boring too. The fingerplays themselves might not be too bad for seasoned performers, but I’m not sure they’re great choices for “young children” as the title implies.

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baby and child care

Alphabetical Baby Care

Parent/Teacher Collection 15 comments

The Modern Encyclopedia of Baby and Child Care
From Prenatal Care to Adolescence
Vol. 6
Le-Nu
1966

Another find from my Swedish Death Cleaning project

I was in first grade or kindergarten when this was published, so I am pretty sure this wasn’t a book I picked up. I am guessing it was from my mother’s death cleaning and since she can’t abide waste, it probably ended up in a pile of stuff she gave me. For clarity, during my mother’s death cleaning she would shove random boxes of stuff into our hands any time she saw us in person. It was always a surprise.

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