Posted with all due respect to the teachers on my list...

[rabid1st]

...here is a young man who is obviously passionate about self-education and he makes a lot of valid points about why it is so important for librarians not to judge what is "best" for people to read <<--something we constantly battle with as well meaning people try to make us censor this, that or the other book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=999ZEf2EpHg&eurl=http://audiobooker.booklistonline.com/2009/03/01/todays-video-break-library-vs-school/&feature=player_embedded

Comments

[auntiesuze.livejournal.com]

Smart kid. I see his point, though I'm not sure you can fully compare public libraries to public school, as their missions are somewhat different. But agree that the current educational system needs a lot of work, as there are so many kids for whom it is just not effective.

We spent the last week in my YA class talking about teens and reading. The general perception seems to be that "reading" = fiction novels or school required reading, where it really encompasses so much more. Yes, we have to read and learn some things that we think we don't want to in school (jeebus, I hated Algebra, but I use it all the time now), but teachers need to accept "alternative" reading materials and find ways to incorporate them into their lessons.

I actually tend to think of libraries...

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

...as part of the educational system. A couple of years ago when the horrible budget cuts for tax breaks began, I had a call from a state senator who had heard from one of his constituates about a possible closing of my branch. During our conversation he said to me, "Libraries do a great job. I love them. But we can't spend tax dollars on cheap entertainment when we have so many serious problems to fix with roads and waste management."

I said, "I do appreciate that some services are vital to the community, sir. But libraries are part of the education system. We are not here to entertain. We are here so that our country has bright and informed citizens. Surely, that's an advantage to us all."

They still cut our funding.

To me, the best thing for our children is a cooperative spirit between teachers and libraries. We do our best to reach out to the schools and foster that sort of thing. We also create outlets for children like the one in this vid. He's not quite right about the lack of public defacement however...bad kids can still be bad...but there is something about kids who are treated with respect and an expectation that they can and will do better. They do respond to that.

Rae

[requialexa.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for posting this! I have a bumper sticker that says "My Family is Autodidactic," so it was preaching to the choir, but I loved it just the same! It really brought to mind my best friend in elementary school, who hated schooling but checked out her limit of books--any kind, nonfic and fic and everything--every two weeks and roared through them. She knows everything :) Thank goodness she had that access and parents that didn't censor her at all. She's the most brilliant person I know. Anyway, I just had to pipe up and thank you for sharing.

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

Free will and solitude... yes... now that I think of it, some of my best educational experiences IN school involved one or both. And they were usually bestowed for good behavior/success at the endeavors that involved neither.