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Provo School Libraries news article

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hamletfan:
Stephanie....were you quoted in the Deseret News regarding the "dumping" of all the school librarians?  I think I saw your name in the article? If so, great quote!

guitarbabe:
Yeah, I was! I work as a special ed assistant in kindergarten (and let's not forget the recess supervisor...seriously the best job in the world). Anyway, the word on the street was that they were getting rid of the librarians in Provo and our librarian is the best librarian in the world, so I had to fight it!

I wrote an impassioned letter (that's what the herald called it--I hate being emotional, but I suppose that's what I am) and they did a story on it. And I had to do some scary things like go on the radio. Good news though. Our librarian at least gets to work until she's retired. The PTA is fighting to keep them longer. I'm hoping they win. I told them I'd help them with petitions or anything like that.

It just would be sad to get rid of the librarians because they seriously do more than we think they do (i.e: babysit and alphabetize books). I sit in on those classes (since I basically am like a student, think Billy Madison female version), and even in kindergarten (and first grade, which I've done for awhile), the librarian is teaching them some good research skills.

And since I really like these kids that I work with, I just want them to have the same learning opportunities that I had (well, I'd like for them to have better even, but I'm from Washington so...). Our librarian reads every book that comes through and she knows each kid and she kinda matches them up with books. It's really cool to see. She doesn't do that thing where she forbids the kids to check out certain books because they're 'supposedly' too high for that kid's level. No, she knows exactly what they're passionate about and suggests those kinds of books.

Woa, sorry...I only meant to write a little bit about this, but it seems to me that since the schools are stressing literacy so much at this time that they wouldn't take away this link between kids and books. I'd really hate to see this happen.

Skar:
Ah, but the goal of the Public School system is to sever the link between kids and books.  Kids need to be turned into good worker bees, not good thinkers.  And besides, if the other kids saw a kid their age reading a book they couldn't hack, they might feel bad about themselves.  So that kid, obviously, shouldn't be allowed to read books that make the other children feel bad.  Duh.  I think all librarians SHOULD be fired.

:P

42:
I heard other places talkng about dumping librarians.

The problem isn't that they don't want libraries or librarians. It has to do that 85% of the nation's librarians are getting close to retirement. However, there are very, very few people planning on going into the field. So school districts and cities are trying to find alternatives to librarians since there is very little hope of them being able to replace them.

Some places are just beinng a little over-enthusiastic about implementing they're new plans.

Skar:
Well, holy crap.  If I thought I could support my family on the pay, I'd be a librarian in a heartbeat.

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