10 Things you don't find in textbooks

We all have our personal lists -of the zaniest/quirkiest/
funniest/ craziest/smartest ... We devote this page to them.

This week, Gaurav Tahiliani, Grade 7 student at Dubai Scholars School, lists ...

Attractiveness
School textbooks would be much better were they to be designed with greater thought and passion. For starters, they can be more colourful and pictorial so they can be more likeable.

Wake-up alarm
How about textbooks with an alarm that wakes up the dozy student? It would be cool if these books had a mechanism to tell us how much is too much cramming and maybe they could come up with interesting sounds or music mixes to break the monotony of all-night studying.

The hello greeting
If we can get our washers and refrigerators to 'talk' to us, why not designer textbooks that do too?

Simplicity
Textbooks would be fun if they were written in simple, user-friendly language, rather than long-winded sentences that strain our grey cells to the limit! There is no rule that says textbooks must read like DIY tech manuals.

The five senses
Have you seen some of the 'touch-feel-smell' story books that allow you to feel the texture of a substance and even smell an object -flowers, for instance? Textbooks need to take a leaf out of such books!

Social life provider
Few textbooks teach you how to make friends or how to break the ice at a party or how to dress up appropriately for occasions or how to conduct ourselves in internet chat rooms.

Short cuts
It would be fantastic if textbooks had little comment boxes adjacent to difficult words to explain their meaning so that we could understand the sentence immediately instead of scrambling around for a dictionary! Think of the time saved.

All-answers in one
Textbooks should be equipped with answers to all unsolved problems in a student's life to avoid him falling into the pit of confusion constantly. They never carry answers to the real tough-nut questions.

Voice recorders
Textbooks would be great if they had a recorder to record our teachers' explanations in school so that we could replay these at home to revive our memories.

Fun
Ever asked a student about his favourite textbook and received a blank look in return? Doesn't that say something about textbooks?