ABC Testimonial | David Huebener | TCSS

David Huebener gives his testimony about ABC Products. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
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 interviewthem, they would say, well, we
just found out about Common Core.
Well, that's 10, 12 years ago.
In Common Core we moved on toother things RTI and things like

(00:30):
that other trends in educationthat are happening and their
books are filled with a lot ofdiversity, effective
instructional materials and soforth.
We have a lot of vendors likethat.
Some are on the, and Devin mayremember this when he really and
the people in his familystarted the company, where it
was on a younger end and wherethey were starting.
Some of these are youngcompanies that are starting

(00:52):
where ABC did, and some willmake it and some won't.
But if you have fresh innovationand you're committed to your
product and you relate to thepeople, abide by the state
standards, get the content out,make it fresh and refresh it
every few years, make sure it'scurrent and contemporary and
make sure you don't avoidsubjects that are delicate.
You don't have to get intocontroversies, but you want to

(01:15):
talk about who really did startWorld War I, who really did
start World War II, what wascommunism?
What was Nazism?
Is the person in America today?
Is the socialist the same asthe communist?
They're not.
So those kind of books, thatkind of curriculum material,
instructional material can helpyou see the differences in those
kind of things.
So that's why I approach socialstudies and that's why even now

(01:38):
as a retired teacher, I'vestayed highly involved in the
Tennessee Council for SocialStudies and our state
conferences as well.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
That's wonderful.
And did you find with the ABCbooks, American Burgundy books,
that the scores improved withthe classrooms over time?

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Well, the people that I know use them.
Okay, that became the case.
My county didn't adopt themwhen I was working there, but
who says they won't in thefuture?
So, yes, people use them.
There's been a lot of successwith that and, quite truthfully,
I was working there.
But who says they won't in thefuture?
So, yes, people use them.
There's been a lot of successwith that and, quite truthfully,
I was one of those that cameinto the field with groups that

(02:14):
weren't super internationalconglomerates.
There are a lot of massivepublic.
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, butsometimes some of the more
innovative ideas because they'renot so bureaucratic is a

(02:34):
smaller company that comes onthat becomes bigger, can do
things in-house or carve it out,but they come up with new ideas
.
They're willing to look at newideas because it's not, well, we
just got to beat the big guys.
It's like, well, we have anidea that's different than one
of these publishers.
I won't mention names because Idon't want anybody to feel bad.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
They're all good.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
I've used them all, and I've been on adoption
committees and used thetextbooks and all that.
But when you come with fresh,innovative ideas, that
eventually eventually bubbles tothose other publishers and they
see, we got some catching up todo so.
This is why I love companieslike abc.
That will come along, they comewith great ideas and new ideas
and they're going directly tostates.
Here's something we can do.
And oh, you don't have a bookin world geography.

(03:14):
We can tailor that towards yourstate.
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 thatbefore we can proceed, and
that's where we need the latestones.
Oh, you're working on new ones.
Well, we need to know thatbefore we can proceed, and
that's where we need to beresponsive.
So you're not lethargic, you'renot stuck in 10 middle managers
.
You can move quickly and changethings and that's one of the

(03:35):
beauty, you're a little morenimble on your feet.
Yes, yes.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
We work really hard to make sure we stay current and
we print on demand, in additionto having the online testing
the e-books and I think all ofthat helps to make sure that
they maintain a current overviewof whatever the standards are,
and I like the fact too, devinthat the product a lot of the

(04:00):
negativity with just a typicaltextbook.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
It's hardback.
There's no flexibility, youcan't fold it.
You can't fold it, you can'tbend it.
Your books end up beingworkbooks too, and so people
they can treat them likepaperback.
They get beat up, bent around.
It's no big deal because it'sused, it becomes a student
workbook and a textbook at thesame time.
So it's very good to use itthat way, and that adds a
freshness to it.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Besides, very good to use it that way, and that adds
a freshness to it.
Besides, newsprint smellspretty good, absolutely.