Re: TARGET Where do we come from?

["Melvin P. Lader" <lader@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU>]

Interesting to hear all these stories.  I was always an avid reader, liked
to play "librarian" as a kid, and worked in libraries in college and high
school.  My parents and teachers thought I had an aptitude for languages,
so I prepared to teach Spanish and Latin in college, but I discovered that
I didn't enjoy teaching languages, only reading and speaking them!

When I graduated-jobless and field-less, in 1970, there was a
movement beginning to educate and de-institutionalize severely and profoundly
retarded children. I had grown up around and worked at a large state
institution, and was offered a job teaching there, as I had direct
experience caring for and working with children who didn't talk, weren't
toilet trained, etc. etc.  I loved the field, took a master's degree in
it, and taught people to feed themselves, walk, communicate, and learn
work and social skills very happily for 21 years. Unfortunately, my body
told me in no uncertain terms that heavy lifting, restraining of students
with behavior problems, etc., were no longer possible, and administrative
work in special ed was not my thing, either.

So, once again jobless and field-less, I went back to school to finally do
what I always knew I wanted to do, be a librarian! I've been lucky to have
worked in two fields, very different, that make me happy to go to work
each day! Who could ask for more?


Roberta Cole Lader, Librarian
St. Thomas More Cathedral School
Arlington, VA 22203
e-mail: lader@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu