Social Science Texts

Sociologist Norval D. Glenn (“Marriage Is Not a Dirty Word,” Commentary, Sept. 16) finds that the textbooks he reviewed contain glaring errors and distortions in the area of marriage and family life and he is concerned about the effect of these texts on university students. My good advice to professor Glenn is not to worry. Students find almost all social science textbooks to be forgettable. Such books are characterized by shallowness and simplicity. They make no attempt to intellectually engage students. They have no “life” beyond the classroom. The damage that textbooks do is to turn off students to education.

Textbooks function to “numb” the minds of students, to provide a crutch for nonmotivated professors who lecture from the text and give exams provided by the text publisher. The only persons to profit from such books are publishers and the writers, who have never read any text other than their own, which they could not put down.

BARRY M. DANK, PhD

Professor, Sociology Dept.

Cal State Long Beach