GEN: why we do this

[Judy Stewman <STEWMANJ@DQHS.DMSC.K12.AR.US>]

Fellow Netters,
     After reading other messages along this line, I want to share
this favorite  happening:
     Quite a few years ago when I was elementary librarian, I had a
2nd grade boy who was a real troublemaker. Imagine a 2nd grade
ruffian and he was it. One Saturday I attended a children's movie  at
a local theater and saw him and his younger sister in the lobby. (My
own child would not let me sit with her and her friends during the
movie.) Billy  ran up to me and introduced his sister to me. He then
asked me if I would sit with them.  In reality that was the last
thing I wanted to do; heaven knew I had enough of him during the
week, but I agreed. As the movie started with me between the two
children, Billy reached over and took my hand and said adoringly, "I
can't believe it. I'm sitting here with my very own Liberry Lady."
     That touched me as few other things have, and that was the end
of any problem I had with Billy in class. He moved at the end of that
year, but he and I shared a special connection through that year, and
other teachers referred to me for years as the Liberry Lady.
     I dearly love my high school job now, but I haven't met a
teenager who has looked at me with such pride and adoration as that
child did. And that is why we do this...



Judy Stewman,Librarian
De Queen High School
De Queen, Arkansas 71832

stewmanj@dqhs.dmsc.k12.ar.us