Willow Glen Resident

Letters & Opinions

Speak Out

Textbook deposit is
an idea that works

I was surprised by Moryt Milo's column ("One bookseller has decided to buck the trend," Aug. 9) with the suggestion that schools purchase and then issue textbooks with an annual fee, refundable with the return of the books in good condition at the end of the school year.

As an East Coast transplant, I found the suggestion rather amusing.

I attended, on scholarship, Catholic elementary and high schools in Connecticut in the late 1940s and 1950s. My parents could barely afford the uniforms for their three children, but they had no worries about textbooks. We paid a $25 fee (for all 3 of us) at the start of the school year for all of our books. When we returned them, in good condition, in June, my parents received their deposit back. Not only was this a more affordable way to have the needed textbooks, but it also taught the students the responsibility of treating their books with respect, or risk forfeiting the deposit.

There really is very little that is new under the sun, whether it shines on the East or the West Coast. But it is an idea whose time has returned and not just for private schools.

Lorraine D'Ambruoso

Willow Glen

Correction

The Aug. 10 issue of the Willow Glen Resident should have said that Bill Baron was inducted into Junior Achievement's Business Hall of Fame in 2006.