OK, now I’m getting angry

I have been stunned by the ignorance I’ve run up against in the past two weeks. I say "ignorance" because my mom raised me to be sweet and I will give someone the benefit of a doubt until they prove to me that they have a head full of manure or they’ve been bought off by corporate demons.

Here’s the thing. Some school boards (and state officials) have allowed sports budgets to be cut. As a jock, as the wife of a jock, as the mom of four jocks, this is hard to accept, but times are hard, so I have to accept this, because sports are not the top priority.

But reading and literacy is the NUMBER ONE PRIORITY OF AMERICAN EDUCATION!!

Duh.

Despite 60 STUDIES that show a direct and irrefutable correlation between literacy & the presence of full-time, certified librarians, school districts across the country have eliminated school librarian jobs. Why? Maybe they are not afraid of librarians and the people who care about books.

They should be. ::cues ominous music::

They are trying to cut ANOTHER school librarian from MY district. I’m going to a school board meeting tomorrow night. Have you fought for America’s children recently? I will adore you if you show up at a school board meeting and testify and pound your shoe on the table for full-time, certified school librarians.

Why should you care about this? In those schools where the libraries remain open, but without librarians, parent-volunteers have to filled the void. And reading scores go down.

And here is the latest: math scores are up. Reading scores are not.

WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY THINKING? WHY AREN’T YOU SHOWING UP AT SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS WITH PITCHFORKS AND TORCHES???

We have not asked parent volunteers to teach math class. But we have asked them to run the school libraries when we cut back, then eliminate school librarian jobs.

Parents are qualified to be parents, not librarians.

If you care about the future of America’s children, you’ll fight for certified, full-time librarians in every school. Do you disagree?

Happy National Library Workers Day!!!

Today is National Library Workers Day!

Hug your librarian. Worship her. Buy him lunch. Tell all the librarians in your life how important they are. Then go and tell their bosses because we all need libraries that are staffed with passionate, qualified librarians.
 

And here is another pithy quote from me: 
 
"Every town deserves a library.
Every school deserves a library.
Every library needs a librarian.
What are you doing to make this happen?"