“I’ve had to supplement a lot of the curriculum,” said Ajuria, in her 37th year as a teacher at Pescadero high School. She started teaching health and driver’s education a decade ago. Since then, Ajuria has had to out-maneuver the out-dated textbook from 1990. So she improvises, leaning heavily on guest speakers, pamphlets and Internet data.
“It’s a different approach. It gives the kids a much more rounded look at the subject matter,” says Ajuria. Several students agree. “It’s valuable for them to be able to hear (information) from different fronts. I think that’s helpful and healthy for learning. … But this is the umpteenth million year for this book.”
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Pescadero High School Principal Amy Wooliever said the book “needed a major overhaul … to see that we’re not sending mixed signals to students.”
Reconciling principles from the 1980s with teenage life today can be a frustrating challenge. For example, a section on HIV prevention is no more than a few sentences long, and begins with the command, “Avoid all sexual contact.” Information about condoms is absent from a chapter dedicated to sexually transmitted diseases.
Up-to-date, comprehensive lessons on sex education, nutrition, emotional health and drug prevention were the top priorities guiding the search for a new text, South Coast teachers say.
District officials don’t know when they will be able to afford new health books again, so teachers are doing their best to make sure they get it right this year. Students were surveyed for their opinions on what makes an effective teaching tool.
Jasmine Foureyes, a 17-year-old senior, aided the effort. She says there’s a balance of information and presentation that needs to be observed when teaching fidgety teens about health.
“You want kids to read about what they’re gonna learn (in life),” she said.
Health being a somewhat delicate and evolving subject, educators want to avoid bias and scare tactics that could lead pupils astray.
“There’s always breaking information in the area of health and I believe that students want that kind of information and that’s why we need these new books,” said Margaret Sedillo, prevention specialist at the high school. “It’s of vital importance for them at this point. … It encompasses their world as we as adults so well know.”
Administrators say they have been low on cash and have focused on getting new textbooks for core subjects. Consequently, the health books – which are so old they feature a much-younger Stevie Wonder giving somewhat dubious advice on drunk driving: “Before I’ll ride with a drunk, I’ll drive myself” -- were not a priority.
School districts in California get a stipend for instructional materials from the state each year, but it’s enough to buy books for only a few classes at a time, Wooliever says. Money didn’t come in 2008 due to budget constraints. History and math tend to change over most often because history “tends to be on the controversial side” in the book debate and approaches to presenting math are constantly shifting, she said.
The state Department of Education keeps a list of acceptable textbooks but only for kindergarten through eighth grade. The county has no position on the replacement of textbooks.
“In general, we’d say it’s a good idea for people to periodically look at new texts to see whether it’s time for them to buy new ones, but the final decision is left to districts,” said Peter Burchyns, special adviser to the San Mateo County Office of Education board and superintendent.
Wooliever says she’s eager to get the new shipment as soon as possible so she can dump the worn books once and for all. “If they’re not updated it doesn’t do anybody any good to have that information in classes and homes … and I’m a person who doesn’t throw much away.”
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