This absolutely drives me crazy in Howard County. There has yet to be any sign of printed curriculum for my second grader. I have absolutely no idea what they use, as teachers, to teach the students. As a teacher, I was fairly dependent on my teacher's manual to guide me through particular progression of skills and also to make sure I had covered all necessary skills needed to move onto new and exciting educational frontiers (oh, that's so geeky!). Anyway, this lack of text has caused me some bit of anxiety as a parent, but I see some results in my daughter's learning. Enough that I haven't been very vocal about this disturbing lack of printed material.
But this is quite disturbing to me: in my inner-city student teaching experience, the school that I taught at had no library. Now, growing up in suburban CT and now living in suburban MD, it would appear to me that a school library is a planned for, permanent school fixture. I mean, who ever heard of a school without books? How many schools in America lack the fundamental means of information for children????
I was checking out this school where I did my student teaching practicum on google for the express purpose of trying to figure out if this issue has been remedied. I was not really that surprised to find very little information in the world wide web about them. No school website, no accolades online about how incredibly huge a difference their test scores have come in the last 10 years, no recognition for the teachers who likely continue to supplement the education of those children from regular, backbreaking trips to their local libraries each week to supply life changing information to these information starved children. It's really unbelievable to me.
In our little suburban school, while we may have no textbooks, our children are at no loss for information. They are hooked up to the world wide web, they have access to hundreds of books centrally located in the school, they have an outstanding, award-winning librarian who aides in the retrieval of any book these kids or teachers might be in search of and we take all that for granted. Now, that is a bit pathetic, wouldn't you say?? I bet we likely have 2 or more copies of the most popular books and who knows where we send the old books that no one even touches anymore. What happens to our books that we discard to make room on the shelves for our newest, award-winning books??? Is there a school out there, perhaps in nearby Baltimore or Washington, D.C. who might benefit not only from those books we are prepared to discard but also from the multiple copies we really don't need? Can't we teach our uppity suburban kids how to patiently wait for each other to finish books, how to sign up on a "waiting list" for a particular book they would like to read or even head over to one of the many, many county libraries in search of this book? I mean, really, if it's that important to them I'm sure they can afford to just buy it!
I understand I'm getting a bit cynical, as I typically do, with this whole library book thing, but this stands out to me because it's an aspect of my student teaching experience that really stood out to me as an obvious pitfall of nationwide education. How can we expect these under-resourced, understaffed and overcrowded inner-city schools to improve test scores without improving their educational status in some small way? I know libraries are expensive, but they are necessary to provide inner city students with a means to gaining certain "experiences" needed to pass these suburban oriented tests!! It's really not that much of a stretch to figure this out!
I was checking out the test scores at Hood in the hood (funny, I never thought of that when I taught there!) and they have risen significantly. Could they possibly have a library?? Or maybe they've hooked up to the www, which really isn't as effective in the hands of an elementary aged child as a book in their hands. I'm not sure what they have done, but I can attest to this: the teachers at that school have a heart for bringing information to children who have very little access to it. They impressed this upon me, as an aspiring teacher, using very creative means to do this. No library. No storytime. One less prep period for teachers. One less staff member for the school. More work for the teachers, outside of school. No Curious George books, that I loved to check out of the library when I was a kid. No "Betsy" books for the early readers. No Harry Potter for the third and fourth graders. No visiting authors. Are you all catching my drift??
I'm not sure how many schools in the US are without libraries. I'm not even sure how to find out. Except for occasional reminders to myself, this typically doesn't consume my thoughts. For the parents and students in these city schools, it's just life. For the teachers, it's a hardship. For the cities, it's another expense they don't have the money to dump into, especially with test scores to worry about. Of course, maybe the libraries would help with that - but what do I know?
Check this out if you are interested in helping. I was having trouble with some of the links, but this looks like one of probably many ways anyone who is interested in fixing a problem can help.
But this is quite disturbing to me: in my inner-city student teaching experience, the school that I taught at had no library. Now, growing up in suburban CT and now living in suburban MD, it would appear to me that a school library is a planned for, permanent school fixture. I mean, who ever heard of a school without books? How many schools in America lack the fundamental means of information for children????
I was checking out this school where I did my student teaching practicum on google for the express purpose of trying to figure out if this issue has been remedied. I was not really that surprised to find very little information in the world wide web about them. No school website, no accolades online about how incredibly huge a difference their test scores have come in the last 10 years, no recognition for the teachers who likely continue to supplement the education of those children from regular, backbreaking trips to their local libraries each week to supply life changing information to these information starved children. It's really unbelievable to me.
In our little suburban school, while we may have no textbooks, our children are at no loss for information. They are hooked up to the world wide web, they have access to hundreds of books centrally located in the school, they have an outstanding, award-winning librarian who aides in the retrieval of any book these kids or teachers might be in search of and we take all that for granted. Now, that is a bit pathetic, wouldn't you say?? I bet we likely have 2 or more copies of the most popular books and who knows where we send the old books that no one even touches anymore. What happens to our books that we discard to make room on the shelves for our newest, award-winning books??? Is there a school out there, perhaps in nearby Baltimore or Washington, D.C. who might benefit not only from those books we are prepared to discard but also from the multiple copies we really don't need? Can't we teach our uppity suburban kids how to patiently wait for each other to finish books, how to sign up on a "waiting list" for a particular book they would like to read or even head over to one of the many, many county libraries in search of this book? I mean, really, if it's that important to them I'm sure they can afford to just buy it!
I understand I'm getting a bit cynical, as I typically do, with this whole library book thing, but this stands out to me because it's an aspect of my student teaching experience that really stood out to me as an obvious pitfall of nationwide education. How can we expect these under-resourced, understaffed and overcrowded inner-city schools to improve test scores without improving their educational status in some small way? I know libraries are expensive, but they are necessary to provide inner city students with a means to gaining certain "experiences" needed to pass these suburban oriented tests!! It's really not that much of a stretch to figure this out!
I was checking out the test scores at Hood in the hood (funny, I never thought of that when I taught there!) and they have risen significantly. Could they possibly have a library?? Or maybe they've hooked up to the www, which really isn't as effective in the hands of an elementary aged child as a book in their hands. I'm not sure what they have done, but I can attest to this: the teachers at that school have a heart for bringing information to children who have very little access to it. They impressed this upon me, as an aspiring teacher, using very creative means to do this. No library. No storytime. One less prep period for teachers. One less staff member for the school. More work for the teachers, outside of school. No Curious George books, that I loved to check out of the library when I was a kid. No "Betsy" books for the early readers. No Harry Potter for the third and fourth graders. No visiting authors. Are you all catching my drift??
I'm not sure how many schools in the US are without libraries. I'm not even sure how to find out. Except for occasional reminders to myself, this typically doesn't consume my thoughts. For the parents and students in these city schools, it's just life. For the teachers, it's a hardship. For the cities, it's another expense they don't have the money to dump into, especially with test scores to worry about. Of course, maybe the libraries would help with that - but what do I know?
Check this out if you are interested in helping. I was having trouble with some of the links, but this looks like one of probably many ways anyone who is interested in fixing a problem can help.
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