Complaints of academic negligence were filed with college and school administrators over professors who were paid as academic reviewers or chapter writers of the textbook Earth Science which contains numerous factual errors.  Schools such as Yale, Columbia, Ohio State, and the University of California were also asked to establish textbook policies with warranties on accuracy--but none have agreed yet.

             Forty-seven teachers along with their school’s names appear in the Holt, Rinehart and Winston textbook.  The clear implication is that the 47 had reviewed the contents for accuracy and that their schools consented to the use of the school names in the textbook.   However numerous errors abounded in each chapter:  the date of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone off by a century, the notion that gold dissolves in hot water, the existence of a dinosaur walking around ancient New Mexico weighing 200 thousand pounds (50,000 pounds per leg), and magnetic compasses pointing to geographic north instead of magnetic north.  Click here for several errors from Earth Science.

            The complaint letter to the school administrators for the 47 teachers is provided below along with a list of the teacher names and schools.    Eye-opening reply letters are included.  We urge everybody to write to the school administrators of these school to follow up.  Everybody should also write to schools to which they are connected--as students, parents, alumni, employees, or taxpayers--to urge them to adopt similar policies.  If you mail us a copy, it will be posted on this website.

                                                 January 14, 2005

Dr. XXXX
President
YYYY College

Dear Dr. XXXX:

                This is a complaint against Dr. ZZZZ, who is described in the textbook Earth Science, published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, as an academic reviewer or chapter writer, as affiliated with YYYY College.

                The charge is gross negligence and breach of academic integrity.

                The textbook has numerous and obvious factual errors.  You can read some of them from the first four chapters in the enclosed article, “Startling New Natural Laws and Facts of ‘Earth Science’ Published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston”.  Undoubtedly the other 13 chapters are similarly flawed.

                In my opinion Dr. ZZZZ did not even read the material for factual accuracy or attempt to correct the obvious errors, but nevertheless accepted payment from the publisher.

                My request to you is:

                 1.  Investigate the circumstances of review of this textbook by Dr. ZZZZ.

                2.  Determine if any academic discipline is in order, and provide me a report.

                3.  Provide me with your institution’s policy on employee contracts with textbook publishers, including the ability to use your institution’s name in the textbook.

                4.  Establish a textbook reviewing policy for employees, and an adoption process for textbooks for use at your institution, which must have a “warranty on accuracy”.  Such a warranty would include (A) a notice printed in each textbook with an address for submission of suspected errors to the publisher, (B) an open review process by the publisher such that the submitter and anybody else can review the submission and the resulting determination by the publisher, (C) a requirement that, if a factual error is identified, an errata notice on it be issued by the publisher to be inserted in all copies of the current edition at the publisher’s expense (including those which are at bookstores and those at any school which has adopted it for use), plus the posting on the publisher’s website.  Product recalls are common in several industries, and textbook publishers should join this progress.

                5.  Require that Dr. ZZZZ completely review the entire textbook for factual errors and report them to you, to the publisher, and to me.

                 As you can appreciate, textbooks are intended to be 100% authoritative.  If errors occur, then tens or hundreds of thousands of instances of mis-education will be allowed.  Academic excellence should prevail and prevent such disservice.  Anyone who knowingly allows such mis-education is not advancing truth and knowledge.

                                                                                                                 Sincerely,

Cc:  Dr. ZZZZ