Libraries Still Matter

My students began a project last week.  I've written about it before because it has changed so much over the years.  It's an 8th-grade project in which they research an element.  While this has changed from a model and a paper to a podcast to a website to a speech, one thing has not changed.  Students have to research their assigned element.

This brings us to an important place, the library.  I know you have probably heard that the internet has killed the library.  Well, The Buggles were wrong in 1979 about video killing the radio star, and people are wrong about libraries.  Like any great organization, the library has adapted in methods, but it is far from dead.  The role of the librarian is, as it has always been, to help connect you with the information and tools you need.

When I take my students to the library, the first thing that happens is that our librarian shows the kids some tools they may not realize are available to them.  He helps them narrow down potential source material because, let's face it, trying to get information from a Google search is a little like trying to take a sip of water from a fire hydrant.  He also goes through a discussion with them about the credibility of sources.  In the age of the internet, what could possibly be more important than teaching kids how to evaluate the validity of a source?

Then, he shows them the books we have on the assigned topic.  Whether that is books about elements for this speech or books about space exploration for the NASA paper, they are always surprised by how good the information is in these sources.  Some of them even want to copy pages from the book.  At that point, they learn an entirely new skill - making copies on a copy machine.  I had to giggle this year at how amazed they were by the copier.  One of them even said, "Ooooh, look at that light going back and forth."  (Note to self:  I may want to include a video on how copiers work when we get to static electricity.)

Students don't just go to the library to research.  It is also where they get help with 3D printing, come for club meetings, and check out books to read for their own enjoyment (one of my favorite things about GRACE is the high percentage of our students who do read for pleasure). 

Any time you walk by our library, you will find groups of students in a tutoring session, reading a book, playing a game, taking a test, chatting with our librarian, or filming a video.  It is not the quiet mausoleum of books you may remember; if it were, the modern age would have killed it.  It is, instead, a lively and interesting place where people gain information and share thoughts.  Libraries still matter, and I believe that they always will.

Reading for the Joy of Reading

When I was a child, I was a voracious reader.  I read everything I could get my hands on.  If there wasn't a book around, I'd read a cereal box.  I didn't care; I just loved reading.  I stopped reading Sweet Valley High books somewhere around #118.  Books that were assigned at school were great.  Books I chose myself were better.  I recognized the value of books I ended up hating, like Great Expectations and Lord of the Flies, because there is a difference between appreciating and enjoying.

What makes a child love to read?  As with all things, there are multitudes of nature and nurture theories.  Most of those can be debunked as sole explanations when looking at siblings.  I think it is probably, like most things, a combination of multiple things in a child's life - parents, home, siblings, school, friends, and personality. 

I do believe the research backs up one thing, however, that could break a child's love of reading.  If you want your child to remain a reader, don't tell them not to read the things they love.  You can give them additional worthy choices without taking other choices away.  As I said earlier, I read 118 Sweet Valley High books.  Am I little embarrassed by this as a 41-year-old woman?  Sure.  They are formulaic and silly, and it took me way too long to figure that out.  However, if somewhere along the way, someone had said to me, "Don't read that silly nonsense," it likely would not have been replaced by literature.  It likely would not have been replaced at all.  Instead, I had some wonderful teachers who said, "You like to read?  That's great.  Have you tried reading this?"  Then, they recommended some wonderful books.  While I was reading Sweet Valley High, I was also reading CS Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, and a crazy long book called Nicholas and Alexandra, all in the 7th and 8th grades and all at the recommendation of teachers who inspired more reading rather than less.

If your child likes comic books and graphic novels, that is awesome.  Google which ones are the best.  You may not know that there are graphic versions of everything from The Metamorphosis to Sense and Sensibility (see this list from Goodreads).  If the story captures them, one day, your child may reach out and read the literary versions, but even if they don't, they now have absorbed a classic story they wouldn't have if someone had told them not to read it.  If you want to expand their reading to higher levels, look for a book on Amazon, and then see what recommendations it has.  Your local librarian, whether at school or in a public library, lives to recommend books.  Go in and say, "My child likes X-Men.  I'd like him to read something at a higher level.  Can you recommend?"  That librarian will be thrilled to give you a dozen recommendations of books with similar themes across a wide variety of levels.  As I tell my students, they have a Master's degree in recommending stuff.  The way to get them reading better things is to expand their options, not decrease them.  Please expand and raise your child's awareness of better books by providing them with more options.  Please do not tell a child that their tastes are wrong just because they are young.

I write this because I have spent the past three days sitting in a classroom with students who are finishing their midterms at different times.   In each class, about 75% of my students have a book under their chair.  As soon as they turn in their exam, they pick up where they left off in the books they chose to bring with them.  From Harry Potter to Wonder to the latest John Green novel, my kids are reading, not books they have been assigned, but books they have chosen.  I even saw someone reading the Collected Works of HP Lovecraft a few days ago.  Lovecraft, for heaven's sake.  I didn't even know he existed until I was an adult.  GRACE students are readers, and I believe it is because most of their teachers are readers.  I try to remember that much of my middle school reading was because a teacher I liked told me about a book they liked.  I tell them what I read over the summer.  When I see them reading a school book that I also read, I tell them my memories of reading it.  When they have a Shakespear play in hand, I tell them about my favorites, which are Julius Ceasar and Othello.  When we, as teachers, tell them about our favorite books, they see that reading isn't just something to do for assignments.  They see that we speak of reading with joy, not dread.  Hopefully, they see that we are never too old to read for the joy of it. 

Stop unrecommending books (I'm pretty certain that isn't a word, but Grammarly is letting me get away with it).  Recommend them.