The purpose of this study was to investigate whether children could learn a new concept using only a textbook for guidance. A sample of all 639 sixth grade students in one school district was randomly broken down into four treatment groups. The first group received one class period of instruction from their teacher on the addition of one place negative numbers. Each of the other three groups studied the same concept from one of three currently used textbooks with no help of any kind for one period. All subjects were given a pretest and a posttest but data were analyzed only for those who scored less than 50 percent on the pretest. It was found that the teacher-taught group was significantly superior to the three textbook groups, and that there were no significant differences between the three textbooks. It was also found that previous mathematics achievement was a better predictor of learning from a textbook than intelligence or reading comprehension, and that only students in excess of three years above grade level could obtain any degree of success using a textbook alone. (MM)