Why, pray tell, is a Pre-Calculus book $235?

Re:Why, pray tell, is a Pre-Calculus book $235? by smeyer on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:03PM (#8998883)

I'm not claiming the price is justified, but it's not just about the "definitions of slopes and limits" changing. In some subjects, there may be improvements in pedagogy that justify new texts even if the material itself is unchanged.

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Re:Why, pray tell, is a Pre-Calculus book $235? by RogerL on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @05:32PM (#9000460)

Okay, what are those changes in pedagogy? Be specific.

Dover prints classic mathematical texts which are wonderful. There is nothing wrong with them. I've learned so much from them.

But, you know, I could be wrong (I'm serious, not trolling). I'm white, was lower middle class but had a great set of schools/teachers, and maybe the books are terrible for ESL students (for example), and I just haven't run into the problem because of my background.

With that said, I don't think the linked book is an example of new pedagogy. I'm eager to stand corrected.

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Re:Why, pray tell, is a Pre-Calculus book $235? by smeyer on Thursday February 05, 2015 @10:35AM (#9003725)

I hope I didn't misstate myself, but I was not claiming that the linked book was an example of new pedagogy. I was just pointing out that it's not sufficient to consider whether the principles of the subject have changed but that one must also consider the pedagogy. It doesn't excuse all price gouging nor necessarily this particular book (I haven't read the book, so I wouldn't know), but it was an aspect of the discussion missing from the rant.

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