Building a 21st Century library

I'm currently taking a class with school library master David Loertscher, which is turning out to be one of those uncomfortable yet valuable "learning what you don't know" experiences.

Loertscher, a proponent of expanding the role of the school library on campus and of using technology to teach, constantly reminds us of how plugged-in we need to be to teach this generation of students. The class is a real reminder of how much we're not doing to use technology on our campuses.

We're still here, but where are our kids?

Through Loertscher, I found a link to the "Big Think" blog, and a list by Scott McLeod of what we'd need to be doing if we were all serious about technology. Here's a taste of McLeod's list:

• "treat seriously and own personally the task of becoming proficient with the digital tools that are transforming everything instead of nonchalantly chuckling about how little we as educators know about computers;... 
• better educate and train school administrators rather than continuing to turn out new leaders that know virtually nothing about creating facilitating and/or sustaining 21st century learning environments;" 
 

Shaming the teachers

Recently, I opened the Los Angeles Times online and the big story of the day was about evaluating teachers. A man with white hair and jeans was pictured in action in his classroom, and I assumed that he was one of the top-ranked because of his prominence. Rather, he was one of the worst-ranked. The Times set the scene for his official public shaming.

Most teachers are eager to learn more about their effectiveness and how they can improve. When I posted the piece on Facebook, upset about its inherent meanness and the focus on standardized test scores, former and current teachers laid into me. They were chomping at the bit for something like this.

With this story, the Times has created its own news, stirring up a firestorm that has prompted many subsequent articles and a slew of smart comments. In their relatively new role as LAUSD watchdog, they've exposed some travesties, like the "holding tank" of teachers who can't be in a classroom because of serious charges against them but who are still collecting salaries, sometimes paid to stew for years. Another piece on the ridiculously soft evaluation process was dead on.

This is something different. Here's the original article, "How Good Is Your Child's Teacher?" 

Diane Ravitch, author and education expert who has come down hard against standardized test culture, called the article "disgraceful."

My favorite response to it has been "The Measure of Our Worth," an Op-Ed in the LA Times by Ivanhoe Elementary fifth-grade teacher Kim Jones.

Arne Duncan says that releasing this data (based on a "value added" approach that many experts distrust) is about looking at success. It's more about looking at failure -- the failure of an education system that is becoming more about standardized test scores and less and less about nurturing creativity and curiosity.

Where's the middle class hero?

It seemed for a little while that Congress was going to be the superheroes for public schools and laid-off teachers, but, alas, their interrupted vacations were for naught. Rather than spend the money now to rehire educators, most districts have decided to sit on the funds and prepare for the budget-cutting storms to come. Here's the New York Times story about the crushed hopes of laid-off teachers.

The face of the teacher in the photo echoes Dorothea Lange's brutal Great Depression photographs -- which is apt.

Whenever I read the comment threads about these stories, somebody inevitably says something to the tune of, "What makes teachers so special? They need to take the hit like so many others." Problem is, Sir (and it's always a sir), that we're not just talking about people's jobs; this is about children and our already over-strapped, struggling public school systems.

It makes sense in these dark times that so many people are turning to Lisbeth Salander, the heroine of Stieg Larsson's blockbuster fiction trilogy. Lower class, tiny, female, fragile, furious, doll-like, brilliant, anti-authority, anti-consumer, and vengeful, Salander is a great hero for our troubled times.

Feeling like a sucker in the system

What's happening in education right now reminds me of a book review I did for the Los Angeles Times. The book, called Welcome to the Aquarium, is about a year in an incredible teacher's kindergarten classroom.

Here's an incredible teacher offering the kind of rich life experiences that create life-long learners, and then you see how the system dampens the experience for the students.

[From the review:] "...it's no surprise that Diamond is sometimes infuriated by new trends in education. She describes how her kindergartners' legs shake as they take a standardized test -- the fact that the test kit comes with a cheery puppet who is supposed to spout the questions makes the scenario even more horrifying." (To read the entire piece, click here).

Sometimes it's hard not to feel that the ed system is there to impede learning, not to promote it.

My Interview with School Library Journal

Well, it's a little strange for someone who used to make a living interviewing people to be the subject of an interview, but here's my Q&A with School Library Journal.

I thought the questions this person asked were just perfect (and I read that magazine all the time, so I was completely shocked and thrilled that they wanted to do something on me--who, me?). And it allowed to get some things that were really bugging me off my chest.

Am still surprised that my op-ed is getting this much traction. As someone who has been saved more than once by a patient librarian, I am worried about the state of the profession (and our information society), so I hope some decision-makers will listen!

Here's an excerpt:

This is the way I see it: most teachers and administrators went to school more than 10 years ago. If you've been in an undergraduate or graduate program recently, you see that everything has changed so drastically in the realm of research and technology that it is a new world, a new universe. Everything is different.

Teachers see how students are manipulating the technology, though, and they're seeing bad information, false information, and an explosion of plagiarism.

They're worried. But they are so busy preparing students for these high-stakes tests that they often struggle to make the time for research projects.

The Web and Misinformation

THE other day I was reminded once again of what a font of misinformation the Web can be.

A student in my high school library declared that he "hated" the new healthcare plan passed by Congress and pushed by the White House.

Why? I asked. Because, of course, "Those poor women will get knocked up every week and get an abortion every week." And, apparently we now have a Communist system, like Russia. Doctors will go "bankrupt," like England, he told me.

Not everybody agrees on healthcare -- we all have our own opinion of the new legislation -- but I think any informed person can recognize the lack of facts here.

Where are you getting this, I asked? "The Internet," he replied, as if saying, Where else?

For more thoughts on this phenomenon, see this article, "Young Learners Need Librarians, Not Just Google," that was published in Forbes Magazine.

And then there's my op-ed that ran in the Los Angeles Times, "Saving the Google Students."

Map of Things to Come?

A new map -- here -- shows impending cuts to school libraries around the country. It comes at a time when my very own school district -- in Pasadena, Calif. -- has pink-slipped all of its librarians.

Studying this map, it's obvious that Pasadena stands out by choosing to get rid of middle and high school librarians. But any loss of a library is a problem. I know that everyone is blaming the increase of Internet use for districts' willingness to wipe out school libraries and/or librarians, but there's something else under the surface.

Reading, and the critical thinking that went along with it, was considered the bedrock of the educational experience back in my day. Building the relationship with a library was vital. I still remember what my elementary school library at Highland Oaks looked like. I remember exactly where I was sitting (and the way I was facing) when I read One Fish Two Fish by Dr. Seuss. The people at that school allowed us time to relax into the place, to play as we read, to love language.

Now, thanks to No Child Left Behind, it's all about teaching to the test. The "process" approach (the kind of project-based learning that has proved to be most successful in teaching) has been tossed aside. It's about pouring information into kids' minds so that they can test well right away. As my husband aptly points out, it's that kind of short-sighted, short-term thinking that has impacted journalism, with corporations' obsessions with quarterly profits. It might produce quick results, but it doesn't produce long-term gains or real quality.

So... research projects and independent reading aren't considered important in this quick-hit culture. We'll see soon enough if this approach works for the future -- my guess is that the positive results will be temporary. And when libraries, and the enthusiasms they spark, are lost, they're likely to be lost for good.

Welcome to Dig Me Out

Welcome to my blog, dedicated to books, Young Adult literature, and issues around libraries, education and technology.


Here is a piece from Sunday's Los Angeles Times about the importance of librarians to teach students digital literacy. It seems to have struck a bit of a nerve.


I'll be following this debate, so please keep coming back.