Many feel that textbooks dominate what students learn. They set the curriculum and often the facts learned in most subjects. For many students, textbooks are their first and sometimes only early exposure to books and to reading. The public regards textbooks as authoritative, accurate and necessary and many teachers rely on them to organize lessons…

Reviews research about racial, ethnic, and sexual stereotypes in elementary science textbooks. Describes the demographics of the United States population as of 1980. Compares these demographics to representations in textbooks. Recommends three corrections that need to be made if schools are to attend to the social message in curricular materials.…