re: #174 sagehen

The downside of electronic textbooks is that the publisher (or somebody hacking the publisher) could evaporate every single copy overnight. Do you not remember when Amazon took back everyone’s “1984” and “Animal Farm”?

nytimes.com

There’s something to be said for the semi-permanency of paper. But, many schools now don’t let the kids take their books home as loss control. I’m not sure how many would let a kid take home a school Kindle worth $50 or more.

Many kids only have worksheets to take home, because their schools don’t trust them with the textbooks. It’s especially a problem in the poorer districts, which of course is where the kids need their textbooks the most. (Assuming the books are not out of date or falling apart)