Yeah, that has me pissed too. Those school books back in the 50's and 60's (both school and university) mostly only had to be read and studied. A good teacher, and there were a lot of them, only had to have the gift of getting his students to read and study. Had a kid in middle and high school at the same school in the 80's. He was deemed gifted and put in the honors program. Had a meeting with the principle (who I went to school with) and 3 couples (I was divorced) and 4 teachers. One teacher said: we are going to teach these gifted kids how to take tests better. The second said: we are going to teach these kids how to read between the lines. The third was geography teacher. On of the parents (a dad) was a professor at the local university offered to do a special study to come up with more current stuff.
My old classmate asked us parents what we thought (expecting to get cheers), When it came my turn I said: you are attempting to do the impossible and also teaching made up stuff. First of all, these kids don't need to learn how to take tests. They are here because they know how to take tests better than any of us. And what do you mean teaching them to read between the lines? Who's teaching you what is between the writers' lines. Geography? The entire land mass of the world has been discovered and mapped. There's nothing new there. A couple teachers and a parent (the professor) took offense. Listened of 10 minutes or so and said to my old classmate: I'm taking my son out of the gifted program, got up and left. One of the better things I did for him. He wasn't taught by those freak so called teachers.