Spotlight 4 Success
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Spotlight 4 Success
ABC Testimonial | David Huebener | TCSS
David Huebener gives his testimony about ABC Products.
And what I find with companies like ABC, a book company, is innovative ideas, fresh writing and an ability to work with the newest trends. Find out what's going on. So if I went in to interview them, they would say, well, we just found out about Common Core. Well, that's 10, 12 years ago. In Common Core we moved on to other things RTI and things like that other trends in education that are happening and their books are filled with a lot of diversity, effective instructional materials and so forth. We have a lot of vendors like that. Some are on the, and Devin may remember this when he really and the people in his family started the company, where it was on a younger end and where they were starting. Some of these are young companies that are starting where ABC did, and some will make it and some won't.
Speaker 1:But if you have fresh innovation and you're committed to your product and you relate to the people, abide by the state standards, get the content out, make it fresh and refresh it every few years, make sure it's current and contemporary and make sure you don't avoid subjects that are delicate. You don't have to get into controversies, but you want to talk about who really did start World War I, who really did start World War II, what was communism? What was Nazism? Is the person in America today? Is the socialist the same as the communist? They're not. So those kind of books, that kind of curriculum material, instructional material can help you see the differences in those kind of things. So that's why I approach social studies and that's why even now as a retired teacher, I've stayed highly involved in the Tennessee Council for Social Studies and our state conferences as well.
Speaker 2:That's wonderful. And did you find with the ABC books, American Burgundy books, that the scores improved with the classrooms over time?
Speaker 1:Well, the people that I know use them. Okay, that became the case. My county didn't adopt them when I was working there, but who says they won't in the future? So, yes, people use them. There's been a lot of success with that and, quite truthfully, I was working there. But who says they won't in the future? So, yes, people use them. There's been a lot of success with that and, quite truthfully, I was one of those that came into the field with groups that weren't super international conglomerates. There are a lot of massive public.
Speaker 1:Even in our event here today, there's a lot of publishers that are incredible. They've been around for decades. They do an incredibly good job. They have great text, but sometimes some of the more innovative ideas because they're not so bureaucratic is a smaller company that comes on that becomes bigger, can do things in-house or carve it out, but they come up with new ideas. They're willing to look at new ideas because it's not, well, we just got to beat the big guys. It's like, well, we have an idea that's different than one of these publishers. I won't mention names because I don't want anybody to feel bad.
Speaker 2:They're all good.
Speaker 1:I've used them all, and I've been on adoption committees and used the textbooks and all that. But when you come with fresh, innovative ideas, that eventually eventually bubbles to those other publishers and they see, we got some catching up to do so. This is why I love companies like abc. That will come along, they come with great ideas and new ideas and they're going directly to states. Here's something we can do. And oh, you don't have a book in world geography. We can tailor that towards your state. We can write it. Take the curriculum, shape it. Oh, your standards have changed. Okay, we need the latest ones. Oh, you're working on new ones. Well, we need to know that before we can proceed, and that's where we need the latest ones. Oh, you're working on new ones. Well, we need to know that before we can proceed, and that's where we need to be responsive. So you're not lethargic, you're not stuck in 10 middle managers. You can move quickly and change things and that's one of the beauty, you're a little more nimble on your feet. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:We work really hard to make sure we stay current and we print on demand, in addition to having the online testing the e-books and I think all of that helps to make sure that they maintain a current overview of whatever the standards are, and I like the fact too, devin that the product a lot of the negativity with just a typical textbook.
Speaker 1:It's hardback. There's no flexibility, you can't fold it. You can't fold it, you can't bend it. Your books end up being workbooks too, and so people they can treat them like paperback. They get beat up, bent around. It's no big deal because it's used, it becomes a student workbook and a textbook at the same time. So it's very good to use it that way, and that adds a freshness to it.
Speaker 2:Besides, very good to use it that way, and that adds a freshness to it. Besides, newsprint smells pretty good, absolutely.