We’ve Made Some Changes To Parts of Years 7-12!

[Primeperiwinkle]

I laud your intention to defend the Advisory. Again, I am not questioning their decisions. I am completely fine with the changes to the book list and have every intention of following it with the exception of Y7 - only because I already have those books purchased for this next school year. 

I came to the forum to read and ask questions because the forum is the place for further discussion, for delving deeper and seeking the wisdom of others on the same path and sometimes even hearing from the Advisory members themselves. I am not demanding that they satisfy my curiosity. I am not refusing to use the curriculum as given. I am not demanding or even requesting transcripts of all conversations that went into these decisions. I was simply curious, like another user, if there was an explanation available for why the books aren’t scheduled somewhere else. As I attempted to explain in my last post, a “the new books cover the same topics from updated/more modern perspectives or with updated/more modern examples” was the sort of simple explanation I was curious to find if it exists. If the answer is, “it was a laborious process that would be too time intensive to explain,” that’s fine also.

This newbie to the forum isn’t a newbie to AO or even a newbie to AO schedule changes. I’m not nervous. I’m curious. Perhaps the cookbook was a bad example choice. Maybe grandma’s insight, tips, and tricks for her turkey fits better - which is what I thought the forum existed for. 

I think your idea for a book review thread is brilliant and I hope it happens. I would love to read through others’ perspectives on the books and offer my own.

Ahhhh ok now I’m understanding better. I don’t really want to defend the Advisory I just feel like their time is valuable? And it seems like an unreasonable request when in the announcement they made sure to explain why they did stuff. The old books were outdated for the times and the goals. New books were better. Can’t it be that simple?

If they start explaining one book now, they’ll have to stop to explain them all. They’re driving the bus. They get to pick where it goes. I guarantee you there’s fifty reasons for every choice. Page count, value, living book, vocabulary, is the idea mentioned or covered somewhere else, timeline, the crossover of seeding ideas, is it a pro or con book which might shed more light into the same subject but from a different angle, what’s the history, the cost, the ability to create discussion, the ability to stick with a teen during touch hormone years, where the book can be delivered, how easily ordered, who was the author and where do they fall on the diversity, Christianity, educational level.., etc, etc.

Every single book is a battle. Every single one could be wrong. Every single book is argued about, passionately. Every single page is dissected.

If we aren’t willing to do that for one book why in the world is it so easy to ask them to share their vulnerable hearts and decisions? I appreciate you wanting to know. I want to know! We all want to know.

I want to sit at their feet and hear them discuss it all. But that’s not how this works.