EDITORS' CORNER
OPINION: Students may pay less for digital books upfront, but lose access for lifetime learning
Colleges are scrapping physical copies of “The Odyssey” and “Plato’s Republic,” due to an Obama-era rule that incentivizes digital versions of books.
Writing at National Review, Stanley Kurtz highlights the perverse consequences of a Department of Education regulation called “Rule 164.”
This rule allows universities to bundle book fees into tuition, with the caveat that they should pursue below market rates.
As Kurtz explains:
According to the new rule, universities could charge students for books and supplies as part of tuition, under a system in which the campus bookstore, in partnership with a major publisher, would provide access to digital textbooks for the duration of a given course. The rule even insisted that the books and supplies in such a program be offered at below competitive market rates. Overall, this allowed students to pay less than they would have paid for physical books, while giving them convenient access from the very beginning of the term to all required learning materials.
The Obama administration reportedly hesitated to adopt the rule, and Kurtz wants to see Trump nix it.
There are benefits to digital copies as they are much cheaper. On the other hand, Kurtz highlights how students lose access after the class ends.
But good books should be kept and reread, with annotations reviewed each time. Students grow as persons when they see what they highlighted or noted years ago as important.
As Kurtz notes, “reading comprehension is significantly better with print, as opposed to digital, especially for informational texts covering complex issues.”
I am sympathetic to physical books for another reason – they minimize distractions. I’ve tried a Kindle here or there or to read texts on a phone. But it’s always too tempting to open YouTube, check text messages, or get distracted by other apps.
When reading a physical book, I can put my phone far, far away and sit outside on a nice day and read and take notes. For some people, disabilities can make a physical book hard to read, and enlarging the font or changing the colors may aid them. No problem with that.
But for the vast majority of students, and other adults, nothing beats a good, well-worn, marked up book, to be reread and contemplated.
Let’s start encouraging the love of physical books as young as possible.
