If I lived in NYC I probably would buy this $10 book and expose my children to the topics in it that they had not already seen. If other parents are not on the ball, tough.
If all anyone needed was a $10 book, and if it was reasonably well-publicized (e.g. the schools add a reference to it in the materials they give to parents), I would agree.
But the kindergarten test prep industry is huge. A lot of upper-middle-class parents spend thousands of dollars each to hyper-prep their kids so that they can pass tests that most of the kids here would pass with the aid of your $10 book or some free online sample questions. In public education, the playing field for getting into something like a gifted program should be equal across the board (even though outcomes will
not be equal). When it's so slanted toward purchasing success, others are damaged. Some truly gifted kids don't get in. And the truly gifted kids who DO get in are also damaged because the classes have to slow down to meet the needs of the kids who are less bright but were test-prepped.
And worse, these tiger-prepping me-first attitudes permeate the entire educational establishment, from K through to university admissions and beyond. The result, IMO, is kids who've been taught to focus on personal gain and who are not trained to be what I would call "thoughtful citizens" or even "thoughtful students who are interested in learning." See: Harvard cheating scandal, assorted standardized test scandals, etc. Sure, people will often naturally put themselves first, but right now, our educational culture seems to be presenting that concept as a model, which is...well, broken.
