"Why is the sky blue? How many colors are there in the rainbow? Are other kids as curious as I am about things?" These are questions that have been heard by many public and school librarians all over the country. No Internet website can really explain these questions like a human touch, a human word, or a piece of advice or guidance from a tangible source....the librarian! Basic websites are not always reliable pieces of information, yet, at times, they are useful. We were always taught not to believe everything that we read, but today's children never heard that. Many of them do not have a conscience about copying and pasting and calling it their own, perhaps because the moral and ethical issue of this has not been instilled in them at home. Look at what children see on the news, for heaven's sake! Baseball players, singers, stars and people of government form an erroneous conscience, for their convenience! The school librarian can compare plagiarism to stealing their baseball trophy or their "honor roll" status, to make it clearer as to what the term means. Every child should learn how to put a report together from writing a clear thesis statement to standing confidently and presenting a well-constructed Power Point. Doing one's own work is a wonderful feeling, a sense of pride!
Also, learning the process of compiling their reports together takes time, but is uplifting when the finished product is seen. Character education and instilling these values is often left up to teachers and librarians to make their pupils understand the importance of absolute values. Ethical students will generally become ethical adults and business people, unlike some of the scenarios we have seen played out along the lines of stolen company pensions and other stolen funds, in the news.
Library Media Specialists, or School Library Media Specialists,as they are sometimes called, do more than read books and encourage literacy along the lines of reading and writing. They teach them financial literacy at an early age, so that children will make financially healthy decisions as they grow. Career-building skills are taught as early as the fifth grade, which include goal-setting and study skills, so the purpose of education is clear to them. These librarians and informational specialists, show students that education IS power, as it is knowledge, and that education that diminishes their risk of crime, drugs, and a poor lifestyle.
Trips, where they can go anywhere in the world, without the cost of an airplane ticket! The only cost is the time that he or she spends with the student, in helping them to explore these avenues. The child soon learns that these field trips are especially good if they are a slow reader or are a visual learner. They come to understand that these trips will aid them as they become older, in planning vacations and are encouraged to find travel books in the 900 section of the library, through the Dewey Decimal System. Yes, the geography and history section is not just for doing homework!
If the Media Specialists encourage information literacy, and guide them so that the child is curious about things, "just because", then that child will ask to be taught where to find answers to his questions. This adult will be their safety net, to catch him as he starts to fall. These types of specialists do not just hand over information, but rather, show various resources, so that informed decisions can be made. It is the job of this underpaid human being to nurture a student's soul and to ignite the passion to learn and open up his eyes to the world around him. Isn't high level and critical thinking what our schools what them to experience anyway, as part of the learning process? When children question things they are thinking "outside the box", the first step to true learning.
Making children responsible citizens and knowledgeable adults that will know how to buy a card, pick out a family insurance plane, find a lawyer, learn how to do their taxes, or even measure a window shade is a librarian's goal, with the answers inside the four walls of the library. Yes, you can call them "life skills"! While some people choose to go to the various "ask" sites, nothing can replace the expertise of one who works in a library. It is there that the value of databases are taught, the mechanics of research are explored, and the personal touch of another's encouraging words, with his or her experience are manifested. Teaching that reliable sources are not the Internet-based sites that appear like they are on-line encyclopedias and fool the public. Again, as my mother taught me, "you can't believe everything that you read"!
Let the Library Media Specialists continue to fuel the passion that they attempt to create for those that have a "need to know". Any tidbits of information or trivia, even in the form of a game, helps children learn. This drive to answer curious questions can be quite contagious, but the children have to first "catch the bug" and "want" to learn more, and ask the questions, "just because, they NEED to know"! While we were not put here on earth to constantly entertain, all people learn when the drive is there and they are having fun. Let them to continue ignite that curiosity in a way that no on and off computer button can do, because we are there to listen, explore, encourage and to trigger a sense of curiosity within them!
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