ISCI 754: Discussion Post 4 - Collaboration, Diversity, Readers Advisory, and Censorship

 

 

        So many of the past two week's reading/viewings spoke to me as an aspiring school librarian. I love the idea of collaboration between public and school libraries, diversity in programming and materials, reader's advisory that is guided by the reader's needs, and a world where the Library Bill of Rights applies to all libraries. As an idealist, this library world sounds like heaven. As a realist who has worked in public school for 17 years, I realize that my ideal library job doesn't exist. In public school, where I intend to work, collaboration, diversity, and censorship are often impacted by school board members, parents, and the surrounding community. I believe public school librarians are playing a vastly different sport than other librarians. I don't agree with that but I know from experience that it is true. 

    In the article "Developing a Curriculum in Intellectual Freedom: What Our Students Need to Know (2015)," Seroff asserts that students must be given the opportunity to earn trust in order to learn how to show honor and responsibility. She also mentions that her school is a private school funded primarily through tuition. Straight away, there is a significant difference between her school librarian job and mine. The majority of my students are bussed to school and live in single-parent homes. Parents do not pay for their students to attend and are often not invested in their students' success due to work schedules, parenting multiple children, etc. We barely have 10% of parents show up at open house to even meet teachers. I'm not knocking these parents; I understand that life is hard and sometimes you can't do everything you want or need to do. What I am saying is my students are not the same as Seroff's students. Many of them have little technology access at home and therefore have not had the opportunity to practice honorable and responsible use. Access at school is a free for all to find anything and everything they can't access at home. We cannot personally monitor 1,200 middle students' internet behaviors, so we have a system that does that for us. Yes, it has its flaws, but I'd rather have to send an email asking the district office to unblock a site than risk a student searching and finding information they are not ready to process. 

    Unfiltered access for kids with limited life experiences is detrimental to mental health. They see things (porn is very popular with middle schoolers) that give them an unrealistic view of what the world is like. We see a huge uptick in eating disorders, anxiety, and depression as our students try to mold their realistic selves to fit an unrealistic online world. As the school librarian, part of my job is to build a place where everyone is welcome to learn and grow. I have to teach them what is real and what is not, what sources are reliable, and what information is accurate before setting them free in knowledge land. Ideally, parents would have the time and knowledge to do this at home as well. Realistically, that doesn't happen for many students. It's like when you have to teach a baby to walk before they can run. You don't just throw them onto a track and field team and hope for the best. You put safety pads on the corners, keep knives, glass, and other sharp objects away from their reach, hold their hands, and help them take the baby steps. We must teach our students the basics before we can send them off on their own. Once they master the skills in the safety of our supervision, we can feel confident that they will be healthy, responsible information seekers and users. My job as a school librarian is create functional, successful adults that are the future of the world. 

Reference

Seroff, J. (2015). Developing a Curriculum in Intellectual Freedom: What Our Students Need to Know . Knowledge Quest, 44(1), 20–24.