A recent petition to the White House (1) has caused a slew of controversy in school library circles lately.

It stated that there should be a teacher-librarian in every school library -- or else.

"Any school receiving Federal funds should be required to have a credentialed School Librarian on staff full time with a library that contains a minimum of 18 books per student. Failure to have a school library open to all students and/or failure to have a credentialed School Librarian to run that library should be punishable by a immediate withdrawal of all Federal monies."

I grant that it was an aggressive proposition, but with 99,180 school libraries in the United States (2) and 62,364 credentialed teacher-librarians (3), it's appalling to me that the petition expired because it didn't meet the measly 10,000 signature threshold.

Influential leaders in our field came out against it. Buffy Hamilton didn't sign the petition (4) and Doug Johnson didn't either (5).

I, too, had a moment of hesitation, a pause, a gasp even, when I read the petition's fine print.

I think I actually said to myself, "omg, this thing is really hard core!!" 

But was it really that hard core??

The petition essentially asked us to stand up not just for school libraries, but for *strong* school libraries.

And strong school libraries require a teacher-librarian at the head of them.

This petition asked our government to do what it's supposed to do: to call schools to the carpet when they violate the law in that regard.

In California, the law is CDE's Ed Code in the form of the Model School Library Standards, and they say (6):

"The school library is staffed by a team consisting of a credentialed teacher librarian and paraprofessional support staff."

It's what Connie Williams, past president of CSLA, aptly calls the "library team" and policy wonks need to know and understand that both members of it are essential (7).

Because in spite of the Standards, in California these days, few school libraries still staff a full-time teacher-librarian. They're reassigned to "regular" classrooms or outsourced to multiple school sites. And the largest classroom on campus becomes a book depository manned by well-meaning but insufficiently-skilled paraprofessionals or even parent volunteers.

We don't let secretaries work as architects. We don't let nurses work as doctors.

The school library is a classroom and it must be lead by a teacher-librarian, and this petition was meant to tell lawmakers loudly and clearly that we think so.

We have to be willing to put our money where out mouth is... especially in this economy...

As fabulous as my library assistant is, she could not run our library without me (legally, and realistically). And shrinking budgets should not require her to try.

If we really believe in strong school libraries, then we all would have signed this petition instead of bickering about semantics or worrying where we'll sit when the music stops.

References:

(1) https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/ensure-all-school-libraries-are-properly-staffed-open-and-available-children-every-day/yBwvp96v
(2) http://www.ala.org/ala/professionalresources/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet01.cfm
(3) http://www.ala.org/aasl/aaslissues/toolkits/schoollibrary
(4) http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/why-i-am-not-signing-the-save-libraries-petition/
(5) http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2011/11/27/you-cant-mandate-quality-but-you-can-mandate-mediocrity.html
(6) http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/librarystandards.pdf
(7) http://lists.sjsu.edu/pipermail/calibk12/2011-November/018877.html

i find myself profoundly moved by the passing of steve jobs.

though not an apple user myself, i appreciate the far-reaching impact of his inventions and innovations.

and i am inspired by his philosophy, in particular, his words about work:

"i'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that i loved what i did. you've got to find what you love. and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. your work is going to fill a great part of your life. and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. if you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. as with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. and like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on."

i am blessed to be able to do what i love and to love what i do.

school libraries, like apple computers, change lives.

steve jobs changed our world. i bid him a fond farewell.

steve jobs' stanford university commencement speech

State Senator Bob Huff wants to contract out "non-classroom services" and says school libraries as one such easily-cuttable "service." (1) But what Mr. Huff fails to understand is that school libraries *are* in fact classrooms, too! 

The school library where I teach (2) is actually two classrooms in one, serving two classes simultaneously almost every single period every single day. Because my students have open access to a librarian (with two teaching credentials and a masters degree), along with a robust and current collection of print and electronic resources, studies show they will score higher on standardized tests of their literacy skills. (3) 

Senator Huff's website says he's "a strong believer in parents’ freedom to choose the school they want their children to attend." (4) I would assume that most parents, as well as the Senator himself, would want their own children and grandchildren going to schools with strong libraries and staffed with qualified professionals, not the outsourced unskilled volunteers he proposes for the rest of the state -- a state which, I might add, is all but dead last when compared with the rest of the nation in teacher-librarian-to-student ratios. (5) 

This isn't about just "protecting union jobs," as the KABC reporter in the news story below presumptuously suggests; it's about protecting our state's children's equitable access to a proven part of a world class education: school libraries with credentialed teacher-librarians.  

Additional Reading:

The Case for Libraries and Librarians, Dr. Stephen Krashen, 2008, <http://www.sdkrashen.com/articles/case_for_libraries/index.html>.

Haves, Halves, and Have Nots, Dr. Douglas Achterman, 2008, <http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc9800/>.

References:

(1) <http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/state&id=7933863>

(2) <http://www.bighouselibrary.com/>

(3) <http://csla.net/bestsellers/CA_School_Libraries_Count.pdf>

(4) <http://cssrc.us/web/29/news.aspx?id=6585>

(5) <http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/lb/schoollibrstats08.asp>

I'm blogging because Stephen Krashen told me to. I met Dr. Krashen for coffee after work yesterday, and after talking about the Beatles, Bill Gates, and the epic battle we are in to save the soul of public education in America, he told me to write more -- privately and publicly and not just in professional journals.   

I'm also blogging because when I stopped tweeting for a while professionally and personally, honestly, I felt sort of lonely. Don't get me wrong, I didn't have oodles of online friends and followers, and very few of those I had ever @replied to me, but still, just being able to tell someone, anyone what was on my mind was helpful. 

Lastly, I'm blogging because, well, why not? My friend Sarah Ludwig's "Write about it in your diary" post pretty much captures concerns I share with her about blogging. Why me? Why now? Why online where the whole world can read it? And why even bother when countless others will say it first and say it better? Why? Well, why not?! I'm not trying to expand my brand, I'm trying to differentiate my discourse. Not everything I want to write belongs on BigHouseLibrary.com.

I'm not sure yet what I'll be blogging about. Maybe I'll blog about how school libraries are disappearing although we know that school libraries help all students succeed. Maybe I'll blog about the "state of emergency" in California's schools. Or maybe I'll blog to hone my own vision of education reform. 

I'm blogging, and I'm capitalizing, but I make no commitments about emoticons. :)